Health premium news gives attacks to GOP Senate candidates

WASHINGTON -- Republican Senate candidates are jumping on news of sharply rising premiums under President Barack Obama's health-care law as they seek advantage in the closing days of the election.

The unpopular law was already an issue in some key Senate races, a recurring attack line for GOP candidates and in some cases another way to tie Democrats to Hillary Clinton.

The latest rate hike news is "an exclamation point on the argument we've been making," said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers that has been working on Senate races around the country. "Right now, Republicans are really excited to talk about Obamacare and the problems and failings and how it's hurting people. Democrats do not want to talk about it because they know they're losing with the American people."

In Arizona, Sen. John McCain has been running ads lashing Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick for saying she was proud of her vote for the health law. In Indiana, where the parties are fiercely contesting an open seat, GOP Rep. Todd Young repeatedly turned the focus back to Obamacare in a debate last week against former Democratic senator Evan Bayh.

And in Wisconsin, where former Democratic senator Russ Feingold also is trying to get his old job back, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson has been airing an ad featuring voters complaining about the law, and Feingold's vote for it. "Thank you Russ Feingold ... for nothing!" one woman says.

The rate hike news this week provides additional ammunition. Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally run online market, according to the administration. About 1 in 5 consumers will have plans only from a single insurer to pick from.

The new premiums vary significantly from state to state, but a couple states hosting competitive Senate races, including Pennsylvania and North Carolina, are looking at increases above 40 percent.

For Republicans, it's a rare piece of good news as they try to hang onto a slim 54-46 Senate majority in an unfavorable environment, sharing a ticket with an erratic presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who's been sliding in the polls.

Several GOP candidates leapt at the rate hike news to lob new attacks, including Sens. Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and Roy Blunt in Missouri, while others signaled plans to use the news against their Democratic opponents in the final days of the campaign.

"It will be a significant part of the closing argument these next two weeks," said Jay Kenworthy, spokesman for Young, the Republican candidate in Indiana. The news also broke just as final debates were being held in several states, putting Democratic candidates on the defensive in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire already this week.

But Democrats argued that voters already know that Republicans oppose the health care law and Democrats support it, and contend that opinions are too established for another round of negative headlines to make much difference. Democratic campaign operatives sought to turn the argument against the GOP.

"Republicans would rather repeal Obamacare, leaving their constituents with no options and at the mercy of insurance companies," said Sadie Weiner, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Those are tough positions to have to answer for so close to the election."

The health law's prominence in some Senate campaigns has been notable given it passed six years ago. But the steady drip of bad news about premiums and choices has kept it in the headlines, and it's never stopped being a rallying issue for the GOP base.

Canvassers for Americans for Prosperity have been going door-to-door in key Senate states for months talking about Obamacare, among other issues. In Florida, where GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is up for re-election, they tell voters about Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy's multiple votes in the House against GOP efforts to undo the law. In Indiana and Wisconsin, canvassers tell voters that their former Democratic senators cast the deciding votes for Obamacare before leaving office and now want to get their jobs back.

According to a Kantar Media analysis for The Associated Press, Arizona and Missouri had the highest concentration of Obamacare-themed Senate ads, about 36 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Opposition to Obamacare came up in 5-10 percent of the Senate ads in Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Arkansas. In all other races, Obamacare was mentioned in a negligible number of ads, or not at all.

The data included ads by candidates and outside groups that aired on local broadcast stations through Tuesday. The only place in the country where pro-Obamacare ads have been a feature of a Senate contest is Indiana, where 1,438 of about 63,000 ads spoke well of the law, the Kantar analysis found.