Dana Balter shares her health care story in new TV ad

Sep. 2--Democratic congressional candidate Dana Balter shares another personal story with voters in her latest ad of the 24th Congressional District campaign.

Balter, D-Syracuse, says in the ad, which is airing on Syracuse-area broadcast and cable stations, that she knows "what it's like to go without health insurance, to almost go bankrupt from health care bills, to be labeled with a pre-existing condition the rest of my life."

Her struggle with medical debt stems from an incident in 2004 when she was a graduate student at Syracuse University. After donating blood, she fainted and hit her head on a table as she fell to the floor. She suffered a severe concussion that required a long recovery period as she dealt with symptoms caused by the head injury.

During both her runs for Congress, Balter has highlighted the need to ensure protections for people with preexisting conditions remain intact. The Affordable Care Act, a 2010 health care law, prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting medical conditions.

In her ad, Balter claims her opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. John Katko, "voted with Donald Trump to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, which would end protections for pre-existing conditions."

Balter's campaign is referring to Katko's vote for the 2017 tax law. The measure contains a provision that eliminated the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate penalty. The Affordable Care Act required Americans to have health insurance coverage. If they didn't, then they would pay a fine.

With the repeal of the penalty, Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate. They also argue that without the mandate, the health care law should be struck down.

If the Affordable Care Act is overturned, it would end protections for people with preexisting conditions and other key provisions, such as allowing children to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, would be gone.

Katko does support repealing the Affordable Care Act and supported the elimination of the individual mandate penalty in the 2017 tax law. But he also believes that the health care law shouldn't be repealed without a suitable replacement. He has opposed past GOP efforts in the House to repeal the law.

His public statements and votes show that he opposes the GOP lawsuit targeting the Affordable Care Act. He joined Democrats in April 2019 to vote for a resolution requesting the Department of Justice to reverse its stance supporting the lawsuit and to preserve protections for people with preexisting conditions.

Health care has been the top issue in the 24th district race. Balter has mentioned it in some form in most of her eight television commercials, while Katko has criticized Balter for her Medicare for All stance in most of his TV ads.

Balter and Katko are locked in a tight race. Most polls show that the candidates are either in a dead heat or within a few points of each other. A poll released by Balter's campaign found her leading by two points, 48 to 46%, in the 24th district. Katko's campaign released a poll showing him leading by 11, 51 to 40%, but that survey could be an outlier.

Katko is seeking a fourth term representing the 24th district in Congress. This is Balter's second for the 24th district seat.

The race is rated "lean Republican" or "tilt Republican" by political forecasters.

Politics reporter Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

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