Selling Obamacare to The Young and Cashless But Not Clueless

When I was young I thought money was the most important thing in life, not that I am old, I know it is.
 

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

 

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.

Hubert Hoover (1874-1964)

When you’re young and healthy, it never occurs to you that in a single second your whole life could change.

Annette Funicello (1942-2013), American actress and singer

It will be interesting to see what arguments the Obamacare sales team will advance  to convince the young to buy subsidized health insurance.  

Will the team say it’s protecting your health,  not the money, that’s important? 

Will they say older Americans need your money  to keep their  premiums low? 

Will they say we need your money to lower the national debt?  

Will they are argue you can never tell when you’re going to get sick?  

Will they say hospitals may be obligated to treat you, but you are responsible for your bills, even if you are uninsured?

Or will they simply explain that we need your money to make Obamacare work?   As today’s WSJ says,

“Nationwide , there are 11.6 million people aged 18-34 who are uninsured…the federal government’s challenge this fall will be getting them to buy health-care coverage, which many consider a luxury they can do without.”

Here is how Kaiser Health News sums up the government’s problem and the money it will take to sell the young, who know full well hospital emergency rooms are obligated to take all comers regardless of their ability to pay.

Wall Street Journal. " New Health-Care Law's Success Rests On The Young "-Interviews here with more than two dozen single workers of modest income between 24 and 31 years old suggest that insurance plans will be a hard sell. Subsidies for 26-year-old workers range from $118 a month for someone earning under $16,000 to less than $1 a month for one earning $26,500, according to an analysis of insurance data (Weaver and Radnofsky, 7/25).

The Associated Press: "Ad Blitz For Obama's Health Care Law Will Cost At Least $684 Million." It will make you stronger. It will give you peace of mind and make you feel like a winner. Health insurance is what the country is talking about, so don't be left out. Sound like a sales pitch? Get ready for more. As President Obama's health care law moves from theory to reality in coming months, its success may hinge on whether the best minds in advertising can reach one of the hardest-to-find parts of the population: people without health coverage (7/24).

Fox News: "Voters Say Repeal ObamaCare, Expect New Law Will Cost Them"
Voters think ObamaCare is going to hurt their wallet and over half want the law repealed, according to a new Fox News national poll. By a large 47 margin, 11 percent of  voters expect the 2010 health care law will cost them rather than save them money in the coming year. Another 34 percent think the law won’t change their family’s health care costs. Those negative expectations come at a time when a majority of the public remains unhappy with the way thing are going in the country (63 percent dissatisfied), and over half say they haven’t seen any signs the economy has started to turn the corner (57 percent) (Blanton, 7/25).

California Healthline:" Health Reform Polls Are Inconsistent And Confusing. Should We Still Pay Attention?"Ambiguity is no reason to "throw away the polls," Julie Phelan, senior research analyst at Langer Research Associates, tells California Healthline. In fact, Phelan says the results might not be as "logically inconsistent" as they seem at first glance. Phelan's firm conducts research for ABC and Bloomberg News, among other clients. … Mollyann Brodie -- senior vice president for executive operations and director of public opinion and survey research for the Kaiser Family Foundation, which produces a series of tracking polls on the ACA -- notes that public opinion on the law has been "unbelievably stable" since it was enacted (Wilson, 7/24).

NPR: "Full-Time Vs. Part-Time Workers: Restaurants Weigh Obamacare" Many businesses that don't offer health insurance to all their employees breathed a sigh of relief earlier this month when they learned they'd have an extra year to comply with the new health care law or face stiff penalties (Ydstie, 7/24).

Tweet:  How do you persuade young uninsured Americans,  many of whom are unemployed and who are short on cash, to spend money on health insurance