The American Medical Association kicked off the second phase of its Voice For The Uninsured campaign Wednesday with a multi-million dollar broadcast, print and online advertising buy.
The AMA will use music concerts, print and online ads, and social networking websites to reach out and educate voters in their Voices For The Uninsured campaign.
"By November, millions of Americans will have heard the AMA's concern that
one in seven of us is uninsured, and they will have heard our call to voters to cast their ballots with the issue of the uninsured in mind," said AMA Board Member and Boston pediatrician Samantha Rosman, MD.
Television ads will air on cable news and entertainment broadcasts and print ads will run in U.S. News and World Report. The campaign will even include the creation of MySpace and Facebook pages, along with ads run on news websites to educate the voting public on the issues surrounding uninsured Americans and how they relate to the upcoming presidential election.
"Under the AMA proposal, those who need it most receive financial assistance to purchase health insurance," said Rosman. "The AMA plan gives individuals choices so they can select the appropriate coverage for themselves and their families, and it promotes fair rules that include protections for high-risk patients and greater individual responsibility."
The AMA will be producing healthy-lifestyle events and mobile billboards dedicated to the uninsured. It will also launch the Voices music tour- a series of concerts across the country. The Voices podcast series, featuring musicians who share their music and stories about being uninsured, will also continue from the first phase of the effort.
Launched in August 2007, the first phase of the AMA's Voice For The Uninsured campaign reached millions of voters through advertising and event sponsorship in Washington, D.C. and the early primary states.
"Physicians see the consequences the uninsured face firsthand: these patients live sicker and die younger," said Rosman. "The uninsured often miss needed preventive care and put off seeing the doctor until their health problems reach crisis proportions, leading to more difficult and more costly conditions to treat."