HMO Ads Create a New Casualty in U.S. Health Care Debate: Truth

Monsters straight out of the movies -- some just as fictitious -- are central characters in this year's advertising war over legislation to regulate health maintenance organizations.

Insurance-industry backed radio commercials depict Senator Edward Kennedy as a bumbling Dr. Frankenstein calling for scalpel and sutures, only to find his ``experiment'' in health-care reform has created a monster -- a bureaucracy that will raise costs and leave millions without health coverage.