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Koch Brothers attack Obamacare in new ad campaign

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative Super PAC funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has launched a new $1 million ad campaign criticizing the Affordable
File Photo: Flanked by conservative lawmakers, Ken Hoagland, chairman of the Repeal It Now.org campaign, center, criticizes President Obama's national heath care plan, often called \"Obamacare,\" Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011, during a news conference on...
File Photo: Flanked by conservative lawmakers, Ken Hoagland, chairman of the Repeal It Now.org campaign, center, criticizes President Obama's national heath...

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative Super PAC funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has launched a new $1 million ad campaign criticizing the Affordable Care Act, which is set to take effect October 1.

The ads capitalize on last week's announcement of a delay in the implementation of the act's employer mandate, which has reignited opposition to the law.

"If we can't pick our own doctor, how do I know our family is going to get the care they need?" asks the young mother of two who stars in the organization's first commercial. "Can I really trust the folks in Washington with my family's health care?" The ad will initially air on TV in Ohio and Virginia.

Supporters of the law have criticized the ad for being misleading, and a report released last summer by the nonpartisan group FactCheck.org contradicts the claim that the act prevents patients from choosing their own physicians.

This recent media blitz on Obamacare is coming from both sides, as supporters are waging an ad war of their own. On Monday the pro-Obama group Organizing for Action released a strikingly similar commercial: a mom speaking to the camera extolling the new law. The ad is the second of seven different advertisements the group plans to release. According to the Huffington Post the pro healthcare law group has also committed "seven figures" and will air the ads on various cable networks.

So far,conservative groups have spent $400 million attacking the law compared to the $75 million spent by groups defending it.

A lawsuit challenging the the act made it to the Supreme Court and the law was upheld last summer. The GOP-controlled House has voted to repeal the law on 36 separate occasions and might be considering another attempt. The New York Times also reports that an estimated $1 billion will be spent on ads about the Affordable Care Act from when the law was signed in 2010 to 2015, when the law will be fully implemented.