In a polarized debate, industry-consumer coalition calls for compromise

Health care ads try to promote cooperation

WASHINGTON — It’s tough to find much compromise in this summer’s health care free-for-all. But at least someone is saying thanks for trying.

The drug industry and a consumer advocacy group on Tuesday launched a $3.5 million ad campaign in the home states of 15 senators to thank them for being willing to work across the political divide. The group includes 13 Democrats, and two Republicans. Many are political moderates, like Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus.

The ads from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and Families USA will run through Labor Day. They ask voters to call their senators to say thanks and urge them to keep on trying to find a way around partisan gridlock. Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee, has been trying for months to deliver a bipartisan compromise.

“We want to underscore for people in Montana how important is the work that Senator Baucus has been doing,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The drug industry is putting up most of the money.

The other 14 senators are Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Mark Udall, D-Colo., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Harry Reid, D-Nev., Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said Congress should scrap the current bills and start over. And a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed public skepticism of President Barack Obama’s push for a health overhaul, with 41 percent of respondents saying they approved of how the president was handling the issue, and 47 percent saying they disapproved.

Congressional Republicans got far lower marks, though: 21 percent of people polled said they approved of the GOP’s handling of the issue, while 62 percent disapproved. The poll of 805 people had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.