Five television advertisements, featuring Mike Farrell who played B.J. Hunicutt on M*A*S*H, seek to eliminate private insurance companies from the health care system and would replace them with a single-payer Medicare system for all in the U.S.

Mike Farrell

“Insurance companies have stiffed us time and time again,” says Farrell in one ad, produced by HealthJustice, a health reform advocacy group. “It’s time to get insurance companies and their red tape out of our health care system.”

The ads, airing on “Larry King Live” and “Hardball,” as well as on the BET, Gameshow, MSN, CNN and other networks, enter into the debate as Congress and President Barack Obama continue to explore ways to reform health care in the nation so that the 45.5 million people lacking health insurance can obtain it.

HealthJustice produced the ads with Farrell, an author and activist, advocating “Medicare For All, Everybody In Nobody Out.” In the spots, Farrell speaks to doctors and nurses about single payer Medicare For All health care.

Clark Newhall, a doctor and lawyer, founded HealthJustice in January and led the creation of the ads in under three months.

The ads are coordinated with a nationwide calling, emailing and faxing campaign to Congress and the White House. As of May 8, the coordinated campaigns have delivered more than 25,000 faxes, 2,000 voicemail or live phone messages and countless emails to Congress and the White House, all advocating Medicare For All single payer health care.

The fax campaign volume overwhelmed the fax machines in the White House and in the offices of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), causing them all to stop receiving faxes temporarily, according to organizers. The calling campaign delivered 500 calls to the White House and Baucus’ office in one morning.

The campaigns and the TV ads are funded entirely with donations to HealthJustice, typically less than $100 each. Seed money came from Physicians for a National Health Program and from the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care.