Heitkamp Ad: Rick Berg Will Let Women Die From Breast Cancer

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Written By:
Rob Port

Oct 16, 2012
2:32pm

Just in case you thought the North Dakota Senate race couldn’t get any trashier, the DSCC drops this ad implying that Rick Berg wants women to die from breast cancer.

The ad notes that Berg voted against a law which would have required that insurance companies cover mammograms. There are a couple of points to make about that.

First, Berg’s vote doesn’t necessarily mean that insurance companies wouldn’t cover mammograms. Just that they’d have the choice not to. One of the biggest problems with spiraling health insurance costs are all the things the government forces insurance companies to cover. Berg was voting to let insurance coverage be something that’s between the insurer and the insured. That’s a good thing.

Second, you don’t need health insurance to get a mammogram. Not only are there lots of private charities and the like who offer them for free or for heavily discounted prices, but just paying for one out of pocket isn’t all that cost prohibitive. The screening costs around $100.

I’m happy that Berg voted against more government interventions in the health insurance/health care markets. Those interventions usually make both care and insurance more expensive for everyone. And mammograms are, thankfully, very accessible in America. The justification for the intervention Berg voted against was thin, at best.

But he, it’s election season, and Democrats really want to hold North Dakota’s Senate seat so why not make it seem that Rick Berg wants women to die from cancer?

Update: A reader emails:

I can’t remember the specific timeline, but late in the 2000 governor’s race, the Heitkamp people really ratcheted up the breast-cancer rhetoric in letters to the editor, talk show phone calls, accusing the Hoeven campaign of “politicizing” her cancer or of leading a “whisper campaign.” George Sinner even wrote a lengthy letter, or op-ed, attacking Hoeven and Republicans, the most despicable (public) thing I can remember him doing.

Republicans concluded that the Heitkamp campaign saw her prospects falling away, so they had to change the topic and increase the demonization of Hoeven.

Hmmm. Seems familiar.

That could be it. Not even liberal news publications seem to think Heitkamp has much of a shot at this point in the race.