Challenge Facing Obamacare: The Percentages

The biggest problems isn't oppositon from die-hard critics, it's the fact that the overhaul is being so badly received among key political groups, as well  as among some  who ought to be its biggest cheerleaders.

Gerald Seib, "Obamacare's Challenge: A Skeptical Public, “ Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2013

I once had a radiologist friend, who said, “When they say it’s the money, and not your health or your politics, its’ the money.”  

I thought of him when I read that businessmen had bought out the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.  Will the New York Times be next?    It's important because these newspaper outlets are for square for Obamacare.

The Internet is decimating the nation’s liberal newspapers, who are rapidly losing circulation and ad revenues.  

These losses are vivid testimony to the power of the public, who gets its news from the Internet and the social media and not from hard print mainstream media stories.   The Obama administration is well aware of this. It has launched a $700 million marketing campaign, targeted at the grassroots level at individuals  and community organizations sharing its political views.

Will the Obama  marketing campaign succeed?  If it does,  it will not be through the traditional media.  

The percentages are against it, but Obama has overcome similar obstacles before by demonizing his opposition and appealing to the ideologies of  bedrock constituents.

Here is the marketing  challenge for Obamacare expressed in percentages.

·         47% of the public who say the health law is a bad idea.

·         34% of the public who say it’s a good idea.

·         42% to 12% of political independents who say they would be worse off under the law.

·         30% of those making less than $30,000, and 37% of young adults, who call the law a bad idea.

·         43% to 13% of suburban women, who say they will be worse off under the law.

Clever marketing  may overcome these opinions, which are not those of die-hard critics, but the public at large,   but it will take one hell of a marketing job to convince the public  and middle American, that  it’s the moral principle, and not the money,  that counts.

Tweet: The Obama administration faces a formidable challenge in persuading the public that Obamacare is a good idea worth signing up for.