Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers, is featuring a leukemia patient who says she lost her insurance coverage in a new ad attacking Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) on ObamaCare.
{mosads}The ad is a particularly emotional one from the group, which has spent tens of millions of dollars nationwide hitting Democratic Senate candidates on ObamaCare with ads featuring women who say the policy has hurt them.
“I was doing fairly well fighting the cancer, fighting the leukemia, and then I received the letter: My insurance was canceled because of ObamaCare. Now the out-of-pocket costs are so high it’s unaffordable. If I do not receive my medication, I will die,” says Michigan resident Julie Boonstra in the ad. “I feel lied to. It’s heartbreaking for me. Congressman Peters, your decision to vote for ObamaCare jeopardized my health.”
The group has spent more than $1 million in advertising attacking Peters, who is vying with former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (R) for retiring Sen. Carl Levin’s (D-Mich.) seat. The race is increasingly looking like a toss-up — Land has led Peters by a narrow margin in most recent polling.
The group says a six-figure ad buy has been made to put the ad on television and that it will start running on Wednesday.
Boonstra was Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-Mich.) guest at this year’s State of the Union address. According to the Detroit News, her old plan didn’t meet the law’s minimum standards. The new plan let her keep her doctors and lowered her premiums, but she says out-of-pocket costs increased significantly. Americans for Prosperity didn’t provide documentation showing how her costs have increased.
This post was updated at 11:40 a.m.