Cancer Society’s Ad Campaign Focuses on the Uninsured

The American Cancer Society will focus its entire $15-million advertising campaign for the year on how cancer disproportionately affects uninsured people, reports The New York Times.

Unlike campaigns in previous years, which had a more general message of prevention or education, the new campaign depicts the consequences of poor health coverage.

One commercial shows a family driven into debt because the mother’s insurance did not cover enough of her cancer treatment; a narrator asks, “Is the choice between caring for yourself and caring for your family really a choice?”

Recent studies cited by the newspaper point out the troubling disparity: Census figures from last year revealed that 47 million and 15.8 percent of the American population had no health insurance. Another study estimated that 10 percent of cancer patients were uninsured.

The charity is trying to ensure that the commercials are nonpartisan and don’t recommend specific courses of action, such as mandatory insurance, but the goal is to put pressure on the next administration to take action.

“We very much see a moral imperative to raising the discussion,” said Greg Donaldson, the society’s vice president for corporate communications, “but we understand there’s a need to be appropriate.”

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