TV spot focuses on Giffords' health-care concerns
Today: We look at an ad for candidate Gabrielle Giffords.
The race: Congressional District 8 Democratic primary.
The medium: Television.
The message: Giffords is holding a little girl's hand and helping her cross the street. Other people begin falling in behind them. They follow Giffords into what appears to be a doctor's office.
The narrator says: "As a legislator, Gabrielle Giffords fought to expand health coverage for young and old. In Congress, she'll take on drug and insurance companies to lower prices, work to cover every child and open the door to affordable health care for everyone -- not just a few." The ad features pediatrician Eve Shapiro, who says, "I know she'll deliver in Congress, because I've seen what she's done."
Giffords says: "When it comes to our health care, change can't wait."
The intent: To convince voters that Giffords has a record of supporting the expansion and improvement of public health care.
Fact check: Giffords was a consistent supporter -- and frequently a sponsor -- of health-care-related bills while she was in the Legislature. However, as a Democrat and member of the minority party, her success at getting the bills she sponsored approved was mixed.
Giffords was one of seven sponsors or co-sponsors on a 2001 bill intended to allow schools to advertise the state's insurance program for children. According to state archives, the bill never went to a full vote.
That same year, she was also a sponsor on a bill to spend $2 million to build "community health centers in medically underserved areas." The bill passed.
Over the next several years she sponsored several health-related bills.
Giffords was one of 37 sponsors or co-sponsors on a 2002 bill to require "any health-care plan providing prescription-drug coverage to cover contraceptives at the same level of coverage as other prescription medications." The bill was signed into law by the governor.
Giffords voted for a bill that expanded Healthcare Group, a medical insurance option for small businesses. It passed.
Others were not as successful. She was a sponsor of:
--A bill to help behavioral-health practitioners pay for student loans.
--A bill to develop a "comprehensive cancer-control plan" for Arizona.
--A bill to prohibit insurers from imposing limitations on treatment or financial requirements on mental-health benefit coverage.
None of those bills ever received a full vote, according to legislative records.
Giffords was also the sponsor of a bill to establish a cervical-cancer study committee. The bill passed the House but died in a Senate committee before it received a full vote.