Iowa Woman’s Struggles With Son’s Health Care Costs Focus Of New Clinton Ad

The story of an Iowa woman and her son is the center of a new TV ad from Hillary Clinton that just began airing in Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s the newest in a series of well-produced ads from the Clinton campaign that focus in on individual voters’ struggles and how Clinton’s policies could help people like them.

The ad, title “Aidan,” shows Clinton explaining the story of Lynn Kutsch, a nurse who works the night shift, who spends over $400 a month for medical and drug costs for her son, Aidan, who suffers from a rare disease called hydrocephalus. The high deductibles in their health plan makes affording her son’s health care extremely difficult.

“I believe she can do a good job helping us with health care insurance, and making sure that all kids are covered and that long-term critically-ill kids continue to receive the treatment they need even if the parents can’t afford it,” Kutsch told Starting Line in an interview yesterday. “It’s stressful trying to pay the medical bills each month, deciding which is the more important one to pay.”

But her son’s struggles with the health care system isn’t Kutsch’s only motivating factor. Her mother’s death from an easily treatable form of cancer was tied to their family’s high health care costs as well.

“This is my number one issue because I’ve seen it both ways, with my parents and my son,” Kutsch says. “[My mom and dad] were both self-employed, so their problem with their health insurance at that time was my dad had a lot of health issues, a lot of riders on them. Their health insurance at that time was $10,000 out-of-pocket and $5,000 deductible for each one.”

“My mom had a polyp in her colon and had it removed. She was supposed to have yearly colonoscopies, but it was too expensive,” Kutsch explains, saying each of her family members finally got one after her brother was diagnosed with cancer. “My mom, when they did her’s, they found cancer and it had spread everywhere. She had less than eight months to live, she made it seven months. Knowing that if they wouldn’t have had that problem – having such high deductible and paying that and the pre-existing conditions of my dad – that we could have saved her life. Colon cancer is one of the most preventable deaths you can have, and that wouldn’t have happened if she had her colonoscopy.”

“Hillary’s been working on the health care issue for at least 20 years,” Kutsch adds. “I believe in her, I know that’s what she’s fighting for and I support her 100%.”

While a strong Clinton supporter, Kutsch is not a regular volunteer or heavily involved in the campaign. A campaign organizer identified Kutsch as a supporter through their voter outreach efforts and learned of her story. Others from the campaign later reached out to film her for the ad, including a shot with Clinton herself. She described the whole process as a “whirlwind.”

View the ad here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVRJX_RjPic

by Pat Rynard
Posted 12/5/15