Selling America on Obamacare

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC survey concludes that more Americans than ever before view the health law as a bad idea. Just as these numbers are rolling out, the White House is launching its own messaging effort to get people to sign up for coverage through the overhaul's new online insurance exchanges.

Americans' unease with President Barack Obama's health-care law has intensified, just as the administration is gearing up to persuade people to sign up for some of its major provisions, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey finds. Prior Journal/NBC polls have found more people calling the health law a bad idea rather than a good one. But the number calling it a bad idea reached a high of 49% in a poll of 1,000 adults taken between May 30 and June 2, with 43% "strongly" holding that view.

“Poll: Health Law’s Support Sliding,” Kaiser Health News, June 7, 2013

The Obama administration’s campaign to sell the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is now underway.  It will be a partisan effort.   By a margin of 35% to 11%, Democrats say they will be “better off” under the plan.  Only 4% of Republicans say they will be better off while 67% think they will be worse off.  By any measure, that’s a vast opinion gulf. Overall, 49% think the new law is a “bad idea” while 37% deem it a “good idea.”

The administration will focus on implementing the law, scheduled to  start on October 1, 2014 and take full effect in January 2014.

Obama officials will concentrate on signing up  the young, healthy, and single "young invincibles", aged 18 to 24. It will encourage these young people to sign up on Expedia-like Web portals which will answer frequently –asked questions. The young are sought after because if enough of them join the exchanges it will balance out  costs  for the older and sicker. Without this balance, the exchanges may tank.

The portal strategy will be supplemented  by high level sessions between HHS officials and Congressional offices who will be asked to designate an ACA Coordinator for his or her office. President Obama, the quintessential campaigner,  will hit the road, pumping up support, and Democratic mayors and governors will be asked to pitch in.

The central question haunting the campaign is: Will young healthy adults,  reliable supporters of the President, sign up for the exchanges when they find out how much premiums will cost? Their response to anticipated  “rate shock” may determine the fate of the exchanges. Young adults make up nearly 60% of  uninsured adults.  Will they accept monthly premiums of $150 to $300 when many are accustomed to paying nothing or $100 for :bare bones"  civerage? Will they support Obamacare (and Obama himself) when they learn of its expense?  Will they choose catastrophic plans with lower premiums?   Will they try to evade the IRS who is responsible for enforcing the Individual Mandate? 
Maybe not.  Very few young persons, after all, believe they will \ever be sick.

For more on these questions and their answers, read Megan McArdle's article ”Are Young, Single Adults Expecting Obamacare to Cost So Much?” The Daily Beast,,June 4, 2013.   

Don’t sell the young short. Most will make decisions that fit their pocketbooks, not their political philosophies, especially when they don't have jobs. 

Tweet: The Obama campaign to sell Obamacare is under way and will focus on signing up the young  to make care affordable for the rest of us.