WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, aired a TV ad Friday claiming his Democratic opponent, Elissa Slotkin, supports a plan that would bankrupt Medicare, the health care plan for seniors.

The claim is not true.

The ad apparently attempts to link Slotkin's remarks with those of other Democrats who favor what has come to be known as Medicare for All. There are few indications, however, that such a plan would "bankrupt Medicare" though if it were enacted, it would require huge amounts of taxpayer support (while presumably lowering or eliminating other health care costs).

While many Democrats have voiced support for the so-called Medicare for All, which is shorthand for a program proposed in 2017 by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to create a single-payer health system, Slotkin — repeatedly — has said she does not support such a proposal.

What she has said is she supports a plan to let any American buy into Medicare, which is now reserved only for senior citizens. The decision would be voluntary and presumably those doing so would have to pay the full cost — which current Medicare recipients do not — or a subsidy program would have to be put into place.

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"That a sitting member of Congress would knowingly air a false ad ... is politics at its worst," said Laura Epstein, Slotkin’s spokesperson.

After the Free Press asked the Bishop campaign for clarification, Stu Sandler, a consultant for Bishop, said, "Elissa Slotkin supports a risky government-run health insurance plan that would cost billions and threaten to end Medicare as we know it. Allowing others to buy into the system would make premiums skyrocket. ... This is the first step to a complete government takeover of health care."

The ad includes no context or links to provide an explanation for viewers.

In the 30-second ad, a couple from Brighton — Richard and Ann, whose last names aren't revealed — speak about health problems that Ann had and their feeling that "Medicare saved us." But then, as text on the screen says Slotkin's plan would "bankrupt Medicare"... "risking seniors' access to care," Richard says, "Slotkin's plan is to take most everything we have and give it away. We paid into the system. Why would she want to take this away from us?"

Unlike many other political ads, however, this one, which can be seen at youtu.be/pYoqBu2-_f8, includes no onscreen references to media accounts or taped remarks made by Slotkin.

In a news release that accompanied the airing of the ad, Bishop's campaign claimed that Slotkin's calls for Medicare to be an available option alongside private insurance effectively creates Medicare for All, and then cites a study released this summer by the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University, saying such a single-payer system would cost $32 trillion over 10 years and threaten Medicare's stability.

But there is no suggestion — in the study or elsewhere — that a Medicare buy-in program would effectively or inevitably create a single-payer system, though some reports reviewed by the Free Press indicated it could ease the transition to such a system if it were embraced politically.

Also, that study's title, "The Costs of a National Single-Payer Healthcare System" — as well as the material in it — are clearly not what Slotkin is calling for, since she only has suggested Medicare buy-in as an option, believing that Medicare's size and sway in setting physician and prescription rates could result in lower costs for some people.

And while some analyses have speculated that could impact costs — if, for instance, it only attracted people with serious health conditions — the Free Press could find none Friday that suggested it would bankrupt the system, especially if a separate risk pool were created. . The AARP has said that a Medicare buy-in plan could more quickly lead to insolvency -- but only if those covered didn't pay premiums as would be expected.

That's not to say the claim hasn't been made before: As the Bishop campaign noted Saturday, in late 2009, during discussions on the Affordable Care Act, a spokesman for former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said that adding a Medicare buy-in could threaten Medicare's solvency. That comment, however, was never explained in any detail and came at a time when Lieberman was opposing the so-called "public option." Reports at the time questioned that stance and noted that the senator -- who represented a state home to many insurance agencies -- had previously supported the policy.

A Congressional Budget Office/Joint Committee on Taxation report at the time also indicated that the Medicare buy-in proposed by House Democrats that "would have to charge premiums that covered its costs, including the costs of paying back start-up funding that the government would provide." At no place does that report say Medicare's solvency was in question beyond the stresses it already faced.

Also, nowhere in the Mercatus report cited by Bishop's campaign does it say that single-payer would threaten Medicare's existence or solvency — only that if it were to be adopted, it would require huge investments to cover it.

In many ways, the accusation against Slotkin is reminiscent of the debate that went on before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, when Republican opponents widely suggested — falsely — that there could be "death panels" rationing care.

The ad follows one by Slotkin released last week in which she accused Bishop of voting for legislation that stripped protection for pre-existing conditions under Obamacare, a claim he denied. Bishop voted in 2015 for a straight repeal of Obamacare that would have had that effect but with Obama still in office, it had no chance of passage. Last year, he voted on a replacement bill that protected pre-existing conditions generally but would have allowed states to potentially opt out of that coverage.

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.