President Obama is back to doing what he does best: focusing on the “cool” factor to try to sell policy that stinks. The focus right now is how to get the still-unpopular Obamacare to resonate with America’s youth.
The Hill reports:
Celebrity endorsements, slick ad campaigns and cutting-edge online enrollment would all serve one overriding purpose for the White House: connecting young, healthy people with their new healthcare benefits.
Without participation from that demographic, the new insurance exchanges will stumble out of the gate as older, sicker patients enroll. Younger, healthier people are needed to keep premium prices from skyrocketing.
But uninsured young people tend to be least concerned with purchasing health insurance and the least knowledgeable about the Affordable Care Act, according to polling.
That’s what the administration hopes will change as a product of its celebrity and sports partnerships.
If the GOP marketing folks were smart, they would handle this like pros.
1) Out-of-touch, super-rich celebrities who can afford the best private care in the world trying to tell you what to do with your health care? I don’t think so. (And I’m pretty sure most young people realize that there’s a big difference between their bank accounts and those of Eva Longoria, Beyonce, and other celebrity Obamamaniacs.)
2) Big-government advocates trying to convince young people that they must have health insurance even if they don’t need it? Last I checked, most young people don’t like being told what to do. My life, my decisions, my consequences is more like it.
The bad news? The GOP marketing team typically doesn’t combat this stuff so well. They either ignore it completely and do nothing or try to play the Left’s game. Bad idea. Play your own game instead and let the folks on the left stumble to figure out your rules.
You know what resonates with youth more than celebrities telling them what to do? Young people–spokespeople for freedom–talking with other young people about why Obamacare is a disaster. Young people expressing why they don’t want to be told they have to buy health insurance because it’s their right not to do so. Young people talking with students about why a big, bloated, stuffy mess of bureaucracy should mind its own business and not have a say in your health-care decisions.
That’s right–regular, honest young people who care about their freedom and want big-daddy government to know its place could easily be stronger messengers than out-of-touch celebrities who we all know typically don’t practice what they preach.
So yes, these celebrity Obamacare endorsements could be effective–but only if the other side is off its game.
GOP, I’ll say it again and again–get with it.
Follow Jedediah on Twitter @JedediahBila
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