On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

John McCain is launching his first general election strike in Iowa. His campaign announed today he’ll air a new television ad in the state to promote his health care plan.

Here’s the ad.

The 60-second ad, titled “Health Care Action,” shows  McCain saying the problem with health care is not quality but cost and availability. He’s proposed a $5,000 tax credit to help defray insurance costs.

“I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability,” he says.

McCain’s $5,000 tax credit is familiar to Iowans. At a health care forum in Davenport last October, he pitched the idea.

The credit would be available even to people without tax liability.

Critics say the credit isn’t enough to cover health care’s rising costs because it throws individuals into an expensive individual market.

“The major flaw is it shifts costs onto working families,” said Stephanie Mueller, a spokeperson for the Service Employee’s International Union, which is backing Obama. SEIU is airing ads in Ohio and Washington, D.C., criticizing McCain’s health care ideas.

The ad is airing statewide. The Arizona senator will be in Des Moines on Thursday. It’ll be his first general election visit to the state.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 10:18 am and is filed under On The Campaign Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.