Ads Are Designed to Counter Health Care Proposals : Media: Wary of changes, interest groups are launching campaigns to influence Clinton advisers and the public before plan is unveiled.

To the casual observer, the talk show being broadcast on Los Angeles television on Sunday afternoon might seem nothing more than a tame version of the Donahue or Geraldo shows.

Instead of discussing aberrant social behavior or criminal conduct, the participants will focus on a less sensational subject: health care reform.

But the slick, half-hour program scheduled to be aired on KCBS at 3 p.m. is not a syndicated talk show, it’s actually a carefully produced “infomercial” paid for by the Health Insurance Assn. of America as part of a $4-million ad campaign designed to influence the reform proposal that President Clinton will unveil next month.

Indeed, it is one of many advertisements being aired on television or published in newspapers across the country by a wide variety of special interest groups in the health care field who fear their livelihood may be jeopardized by the changes being considered by the Administration.

Among those groups now running ad campaigns are the drug companies, the physicians, the distillers, the chiropractors, occupational therapists, some of the major health insurers and the American Assn. of Retired Persons.

By delivering their message to the public prior to the unveiling of Clinton’s plan, these groups hope either to influence the President’s health care advisers or--failing that--to persuade the American public to be skeptical of the White House proposal.

Their purpose, according to Peter Fenn, a well-known media consultant, is clearly “to help frame the debate and get input into the process” of deciding what will be in the President’s proposal. He added: “My guess is there is also some flexing of muscle here.”

Not surprisingly, the ads have drawn criticism from some consumer groups, most of whom cannot afford expensive ad campaigns to promote their views on health care reform.

“These ads are being funded by the health profiteers,” said Arnold Bennett, spokesman for Families USA Foundation. “They are trying to defend their excess profits, which they don’t want to give up.”

Of all the advertising campaigns now under way, none has been as expensive as the one funded by HIAA, a group of small- to medium-sized insurers who fear that they will be put out of business if the President’s plan does as expected and favors managed care over old-fashioned indemnity health insurance.

According to Richard Coorsh, HIAA spokesman, the group’s infomercial is the culmination of a nationwide radio, television and newspaper ad campaign that HIAA began about a month ago under the name of the Coalition for Health Insurance Choices. The theme of these ads: Americans want to be able to choose their own doctors.

Coorsh said HIAA’s polls show that choice of doctors is an issue with broad appeal among Americans. It also is a good issue for HIAA to emphasize because, unlike managed care, indemnity insurance permits patients to see any doctor.

By emphasizing an issue with broad appeal, experts say, HIAA appears to be countering a widespread negative attitude among Americans toward insurance companies. In the past, Clinton has tried to build support for his health care reform plan by promising that it will “get tough” on insurers.

Coorsh said more than 40,000 people have called HIAA’s 800-number because of the ads. Public relations specialists predict that the list of callers eventually will be used by HIAA to show grass-roots support for insurers.

Like the insurers, members of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America also have mounted a rich ad campaign designed to dispel the widely held view that high drug prices are responsible for rising health care costs. PMA’s ads emphasize that the manufacturers support prescription drug coverage for all Americans.

Likewise, the American Medical Assn. is running occasional ads expressing the support of doctors for health care reform.

At the same time, groups representing a number of medical specialties, such as chiropractors and occupational therapists, have resorted to advertising to persuade policy-makers that their services should be part of the basic health care insurance package for all Americans.

Fred Whiting, spokesman for the American Occupational Therapy Assn., said his group has been purchasing weekly quarter-page ads costing $8,000 each in the Washington Post as a way of influencing members of the President’s health care task force. He indicated the ads are designed to compensate for a lack of direct contact with Administration officials writing the plan.

The Distilled Spirits Council has no particular ax to grind about the design of the health care plan. But because Clinton is considering higher liquor taxes to finance it, the council also has felt the need to advertise.

“Health care is essential to America’s future,” said the council’s recent newspaper ad. “To succeed, it must be adequately funded. Attempts to fund it with higher liquor taxes are doomed to failure.”

Perhaps the only consumer group that has enough money to fund advertising at this point is the AARP, whose ads assert that the President’s program should provide for long-term care for the elderly. Still, AARP said it is saving most of its money to influence the legislative battle ahead.

Gene Kimmelman, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, summed up the view of most other consumer groups: “We certainly are not going to squander our meager resources before we have even seen what is in the plan.”