First, we had "Barack O-Breezy" telling us to "Sign up Cause it's Hot":
Then, we had "Pajama Boy":
Those efforts at convincing young people (the 18-34yr old demographic) vital to the financial viability of Obamacare to sign up were widely ridiculed and largely ineffective, despite the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the effort. Now, the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops.
BEHOLD! The ultimate, sure-to-succeed marketing campaign guaranteed to bring the young hipsters to Obamacare in droves:
That's right, Mr. & Mrs. America! The controversy is over. Those of you who foolishly resisted the advance of our beneficent government's attempt to take over our healthcare system and relieve us of the burden of responsibility for making sometimes difficult choices, YOU are the reason the Obama administration had to resort to such hardball tactics. You have only yourselves to blame.
Come on. Seriously, now. Who in their right minds could ever envision any of the administration's marketing attempts succeeding? If anything, they seem carefully calculated to prevent young people from signing up.
Think about it. Would any of these ads appeal to any member of a demographic whose foremost desire is to appear "cool", "suave", "sexy", "hip" or anything approaching a positive self image? Hell, I'm over 50 and even I can see the target audience ridiculing and laughing at these images in contempt. That begs the question: "Why?"
Why would the administration spend millions of dollars in a marketing effort to convince the American people to participate in a program that only 35% (and falling) approve of? And why would they do so poor a job of appealing to the 18-34yr old demographic that all agree is key to the success of the program? And, if the 18-34yr olds are so vital to the success of Obamacare, why push for them to remain on their parent's healthcare plans until they are 26? Doesn't that effectively give 50% of this vital sector an Obamacare "waiver"?
In spite of the erosion of the American educational system over the last few decades, most Americans can still do basic math and you've got two calculations working against the sign up of young people: First, you've got the requirement that they be allowed to remain on their parent's insurance; what young man or woman is going to volunteer to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket every year for insurance when they can remain on their parent's plan and pay little or nothing? Ridiculous, right? Second, you have the straight forward calculation of cost v benefit v penalty. People in this demographic reasonably expect to not need insurance. They are still young enough to retain the feeling of invulnerability all teens have, so they don't see any real need for it. They also don't earn much money (especially in this Obama economy) and what little discretionary income they do have is earmarked for more important things (like girls, cars, & parties), so they have to do the math: $100's/month and $1000's/yr in deductibles, co-pays, and premiums OR a $95 fine. Even a graduate of a public school can do that math.
So again, why?
Some have said from the beginning that the ultimate goal of Obamacare is to tear down the existing healthcare system and replace it with true "single-payer", government-run Socialized healthcare similar to what they have in Canada and the UK and that the deficiencies in Obamacare and the botched roll out of Healthcare.gov was intentional, designed to generate such confusion and disgust with the whole thing that people would actually demand that the government step in and take over a system that has been "proven" not to work.
If so, then maybe, just maybe, Richard Simmons is the ultimate "useful idiot" and this latest marketing gambit by the Obama administration is the key to rendering Obamacare so ridiculous that virtually none of the supposed target audience will sign up, leading to the collapse of a system that is already so intertwined with the rest of the healthcare industry that all will become chaos, giving the government it's long sought after chance to ride to the rescue and implement it's single-payer dream.
Then, we had "Pajama Boy":
Those efforts at convincing young people (the 18-34yr old demographic) vital to the financial viability of Obamacare to sign up were widely ridiculed and largely ineffective, despite the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on the effort. Now, the Obama administration is pulling out all the stops.
BEHOLD! The ultimate, sure-to-succeed marketing campaign guaranteed to bring the young hipsters to Obamacare in droves:
That's right, Mr. & Mrs. America! The controversy is over. Those of you who foolishly resisted the advance of our beneficent government's attempt to take over our healthcare system and relieve us of the burden of responsibility for making sometimes difficult choices, YOU are the reason the Obama administration had to resort to such hardball tactics. You have only yourselves to blame.
Come on. Seriously, now. Who in their right minds could ever envision any of the administration's marketing attempts succeeding? If anything, they seem carefully calculated to prevent young people from signing up.
Think about it. Would any of these ads appeal to any member of a demographic whose foremost desire is to appear "cool", "suave", "sexy", "hip" or anything approaching a positive self image? Hell, I'm over 50 and even I can see the target audience ridiculing and laughing at these images in contempt. That begs the question: "Why?"
Why would the administration spend millions of dollars in a marketing effort to convince the American people to participate in a program that only 35% (and falling) approve of? And why would they do so poor a job of appealing to the 18-34yr old demographic that all agree is key to the success of the program? And, if the 18-34yr olds are so vital to the success of Obamacare, why push for them to remain on their parent's healthcare plans until they are 26? Doesn't that effectively give 50% of this vital sector an Obamacare "waiver"?
In spite of the erosion of the American educational system over the last few decades, most Americans can still do basic math and you've got two calculations working against the sign up of young people: First, you've got the requirement that they be allowed to remain on their parent's insurance; what young man or woman is going to volunteer to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket every year for insurance when they can remain on their parent's plan and pay little or nothing? Ridiculous, right? Second, you have the straight forward calculation of cost v benefit v penalty. People in this demographic reasonably expect to not need insurance. They are still young enough to retain the feeling of invulnerability all teens have, so they don't see any real need for it. They also don't earn much money (especially in this Obama economy) and what little discretionary income they do have is earmarked for more important things (like girls, cars, & parties), so they have to do the math: $100's/month and $1000's/yr in deductibles, co-pays, and premiums OR a $95 fine. Even a graduate of a public school can do that math.
So again, why?
Some have said from the beginning that the ultimate goal of Obamacare is to tear down the existing healthcare system and replace it with true "single-payer", government-run Socialized healthcare similar to what they have in Canada and the UK and that the deficiencies in Obamacare and the botched roll out of Healthcare.gov was intentional, designed to generate such confusion and disgust with the whole thing that people would actually demand that the government step in and take over a system that has been "proven" not to work.
If so, then maybe, just maybe, Richard Simmons is the ultimate "useful idiot" and this latest marketing gambit by the Obama administration is the key to rendering Obamacare so ridiculous that virtually none of the supposed target audience will sign up, leading to the collapse of a system that is already so intertwined with the rest of the healthcare industry that all will become chaos, giving the government it's long sought after chance to ride to the rescue and implement it's single-payer dream.
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