The state's biggest health insurer is quietly working to oppose President Barack Obama's push for universal health coverage, even as national organizations publicly vow to support the plan.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is preparing three 30-second videos that deride the Obama proposal as a government-run bureaucracy with limited choices and long waits. The videos are being created by Capstrat, a Raleigh public relations firm that's active in Democratic Party politics and counts Blue Cross as one of its biggest corporate clients.

Blue Cross had planned to launch the videos on its web site within several weeks, but someone leaked the production material earlier this week.

Health-care organizations may be publicly embracing Obama's proposals, but they will fight any reforms that imperil their business, said John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh.

"They typically object to setting up a federal government plan that would compete with private firms," he said. "If this goes through, there is a non-stop train headed for a federal takeover."

Capstrat CEO Ken Eudy, a onetime executive director of the state Democratic Party, declined comment through a spokesman. Eudy was best man at the wedding of Bob Greczyn, the CEO of Blue Cross.

Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman said the draft versions are works in progress that don't necessarily reflect the message that will be presented to the public when the Blue Cross campaign eventually goes online.

"There will be a lot of positive information on what we believe in, what we stand for, and why universal coverage should be a reality," Borman said of Blue Cross's planned message.


Gorman couldn't specify what aspects of the Obama proposal Blue Cross finds objectionable. Blue Cross insures 3.8 million people in the state and is one of the biggest Blue Cross organizations in the country.

The company is conducting an internal investigation to catch the person who leaked the drafts, and is also contemplating filing a police report, Gorman said. He wouldn't say how much money the company has spent on the campaign so far and whether the leaks will require Capstrat to start over with a new approach.

The drafts include instructions for imagery, music and voice-overs for three 30-second spots, entitled "Blind," "Conversation" and "Waiting." The mood is reminiscent of the "Harry and Louise" TV spots that helped derail the Clinton Administration health plan in the 1990s.

One set of panes shows a phone receptionist telling an anxious caller that the earliest available appointment date on the government health plan is in 2 1/2 months. Another ends with an ominous warning: "We can do a lot better than a government-run health care system." And another includes a voice-overs murmuring phrases like "rising premiums," and "a lot like Medicare,"

With the federal government's heavy hand directing the nation's banking and auto industries, big changes are expected in health care as well.

Adam Searing, healthcare access director for the N.C. Justice Center, received the leaked material Monday morning by e-mail. He shared his copy of the draft story boards with the N&O.

He said Blue Cross is concerned that federal health reform would restrict the insurer's ability to set high premiums for people with pre-existing conditions and other problems that are often obstacles to getting insurance. More than 1.5 million people in this state lack insurance.

john.murawski@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8932