Campaign Releases New Ad Highlighting Peter Roskam’s Repeated Attacks Against Protections for Pre-Existing Conditions

(Downers Grove, IL)  October 2, 2018 – This week, Sean Casten released a new ad highlighting Peter Roskam’s repeated attempts to strip away protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions. The ad highlights the situation of Sixth District parents, Randall and Kelly, and their daughter Isabel who has a pre-existing condition. Isabel suffers from tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disease that causes benign tumors to grow in the brain and on other vital organs. Today, the campaign released the following statement:

“The story of Randall and Kelly’s daughter Isabel is important because they are not alone in having a loved one with a pre-existing medical condition,” said Greg Bales, Campaign Manager for Sean Casten. “In the Sixth District, there are over 322,000 individuals with a pre-existing condition, and if Peter Roskam had his way they’d be subject to the whims of insurance companies to deny them coverage or drastically increase the cost of their health coverage.”

“Peter Roskam had the opportunity to do the right thing over 60 times, and he not only let Randall, Kelly, and their daughter Isabel down – he let down over 322,000 individuals in his district. That’s not leadership, that’s not standing up for people in their time of need, that’s kicking them while they are down.”

The ad highlights how Peter Roskam voted against the law that provides legal protection for those with pre-existing over 60 times. Recently, Peter Roskam even admitted he has no intention of protecting individuals with pre-existing medical conditions if they’ve ever had a gap in coverage. If Peter Roskam had his way, the 6.3 million people with a pre-existing condition who have had a gap in coverage could be denied coverage or charged astronomically higher premiums.

The script of the ad follows:

Randall: After Isabel was born, she was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow throughout the vital organs. She can’t do any of the things a normal kid, her age does.

Narrator: Peter Roskam repeatedly attacked the law that protects Isabel and other Americans who have a pre-existing condition, voting against it 60 times.

Randall: Peter Roskam had 60 chances to do the right thing.

Kelly: And he let us down every single time.

This ad follows Sean’s other ad highlighting how Peter Roskam voted with Donald Trump 94% of the time and how Roskam voted to weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions, raise premiums, allow insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more than younger people, and kick more than thirty thousand people in this district off of their health insurance, calling that legislation “a good bill.”

Recently, Inside Elections moved the race to “Tilt Dem” just as Politico becomes the fifth key political prognosticator to join Cook Political Report, Election Projection, and Larry Sabato all to list this race a toss-up. The Casten campaign poll, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, and the New York Times latest public polling confirm that momentum.