(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
Not sure whether this is a good idea or not. Sarah Kliff, at the Washington Post:
The White House is enlisting the help of celebrity and entertainment officials to promote the health-care overhaul, focusing on stars who they hope can persuade young adults to purchase insurance coverage.
Comedian Amy Poehler, actor Kal Penn and singer Jennifer Hudson attended a closed-door White House meeting Monday, hosted by senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and other top White House officials, according to a White House official.
Representatives for Oprah Winfrey, Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys, the Grammys and Latin Grammys were also present, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss a private meeting.
President Obama stopped by the meeting to “engage artists who expressed an interest in helping to educate the public.”
The White House has grown increasingly focused on signing up millions of young adults for coverage under the health law’s new programs, which open for enrollment on Oct. 1. Typically a healthier demographic, young enrollees would be expected to lower the cost of health insurance if they show up in high numbers….
The White House’s outreach work has faced aggressive backlash from Republican lawmakers, who have pushed back against efforts to create high-profile partnerships. The National Football League backed away from talks with the administration on the Affordable Care Act after receiving a stern warning from Republican leaders to not associate with a law marked by “divisiveness and persistent unpopularity.”
But other well-known organizations are trying to ally with the White House.
Video site Funny or Die has already committed to producing Web videos meant to get the word out about the health-care law to its audience, which is generally a younger crowd. The White House will not provide any financing for the Web spots…
Granted, this is a way cooler bunch of celebs than the GOP could collect (threatening people out of cooperation is much more their skill set), but do Oprah Winfrey and Bon Jovi really attract The Youth?
Somebody persuade me that I’m over-thinking this.
raven
U R.
Ben Cisco
Yeah, pretty much.
NotMax
Indubitably.
raven
This is a big fucking deal!
jayackroyd
Yep. Buzz iz Buzz.
raven
Michelle Nunn’s web page.
NotMax
@raven
Admit to not following the Georgia race closely (and it is still early yet), but does it appear that wack-a-loon Broun will be the R candidate?
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t have a clue what attracts the youth. When ever b-days and x-mas come around, I just get out my wallet and tell them not to spend it all in one place.
Works pretty well too. They get what they want, and my brain doesn’t hurt.
raven
@NotMax: There are a number of morons running:
Paul Broun, U.S. Representative[2]
Phil Gingrey, U.S. Representative[3]
Derrick Grayson, conservative political activist[4]
Karen Handel, former Secretary of State of Georgia, former Susan G. Komen executive and candidate for Governor in 2010[5]
Jack Kingston, U.S. Representative[6]
Nunn just announced.
gelfling545
Oprah (and maybe even Bon Jovi) won’t necessarily get the young’uns but they will get their moms, which matters. There are thousands of middle class white women who swear by what they heard on Oprah.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I’m enjoying the teaching over here but other than that I’m really ready to go home. I’ve lost about ten pounds simply because it’s so inconvenient to get anything to eat; I don’t have any way to cook and if a restaurant doesn’t have a printed menu with pictures of the food I don’t have any way to order anything. There’s two places like that around the hotel. Anything else I need to take a cab, which I can only do if one of my students has written out a note asking the cabbie to take me to a specific place since I can’t talk to them.
Most of the time it’s easier just to stay in the hotel and go to bed early. The weather doesn’t help with that since it’s hot and humid all the time.
August 12th can’t get here soon enough.
Betty Cracker
@gelfling545: I was thinking the same thing. This is particularly true of young people who are glomming onto their parents’ coverage to age 26 courtesy of ObamaCare. Now their moms can nag them about getting their own policy.
raven
Apparently Obama voted for and co-sponsored a “stand your ground” type law while an Illinois legislator. Lots of tsk tsking on you know where.
amk
UROTT.
Dolly Llama
@raven: It’s about time the God damn Sam Nunn wing of the Georgia Democratic Party woke the fuck up and smelled the opportunity.
Of course if Sam Nunn were in office today, he’d be a moderate Republican – and he’d probably have been primaried out of office by now by one of the whackaloons you list.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Not wishing you any kind of ill will, but I’m kinda rooting for Broun just for the sheer spectacle of him.
Randy P
@raven: Pardon my skepticism, but when I hear a 2nd-hand report from Republicans about what Democrat X said, I tend to want confirmation.
Here’s something closer to the truth.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/07/22/no_president_obama_didn_t_support_a_stand_your_ground_law_in_illinois.html
Keep in mind these facts:
1. The law in Illinois was a tweak to a 1961 law.
2. The vote in question happened in 2004.
3. The entire nation agrees that the first Stand Your Ground law was in Florida in 2005.
debbie
@raven:
Saxby Chambliss is the one who needs to go.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I’d be surprised if half those folks have much influence over the youth (Bon Jovi had influence when I was a youth in the 1980s, but since then?) but I don’t think the youth will really need much convincing. When I was a youth I actively sought out health insurance and bought a crappy individual policy just to be on the safe side. I never had much faith they’d actually come through and cover stuff, but I paid my premiums. I was working retail at the time so I wasn’t making good money, but it was better than the risk of being in peonage to a hospital for the rest of my life if the worst happened. At least with Obamacare those policies will come through for people when they need them.
raven
@debbie: It’s his seat.
Omnes Omnibus
I am sure the article mentioned Oprah and Bon Jovi because those are names that its readers would recognize. Kal Penn and the Funny or Die people will probably have more youth appeal than O and the Jov, but they are probably less familiar to, as m_c called them (or us), “the olds.”
raven
@Randy P: So your point is that the truth matters?
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not an olds it’s a buick.
TR
Obama could just ask Jay Z and Beyonce to send out a single tweet to their followers and it’d be done.
Chyron HR
Obama could just issue an executive order commanding everyone, everywhere, to love Obamacare. His failure to do so is TELLING, don’t you think?
Southern Beale
Here’s a same-sex marriage ruling out of Ohio that deserves some attention. Ohio doesn’t recognize same sex marriage so this couple of 20 years wed in Maryland. The couple want to be buried next to each other — one of the partners has ALS — but relatives and the state of Ohio wouldn’t let them.
From the story:
prufrock
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I did the same thing and when I contracted cancer, they payed a grand total of $500. Thank the FSM for Bay Pines V.A. Hospital.
Kay
@Southern Beale:
It is interesting. It’s going to be tough to get around, though. Here’s the discriminatory law in Ohio – designed and promoted by Republicans to drag Bush over the finish line in ’04:
Conservatives don’t take nearly enough shit for this tactic they employed. Can you imagine? They put in a discriminatory law to demonize one specific group of people to bump Bush’s religious vote turn-out up slightly. They ALL went along with that. It’s different than dog whistles and ads, worse. It’s a LAW.
The Red Pen
Jon Bon Jovi’s first commercial singing credit is on the Star Wars Christmas Album signing What Do You Get a Wookie for Christmas (When he Already has a Comb).
He was credited under his original name, John Bon Giovanni.
How could this not appeal to hipsters? Ironically, duh.
Baud
@Chyron HR:
What will be telling is the extent to which liberal blogs like GOS will contribute to outreach efforts. I don’t follow other blogs as much as I used to, so maybe they are already doing this, but I haven’t seen much evidence of it yet.
I’ve always felt that the # 1 value of bloggers was not the “activism” per se, but their ability to get around an increasingly conservative and incompetent mainstream media to disseminate information to people. This will be an ideal opportunity for them to seize that mantle if they want to.
Baud
@Kay:
Poly Sci 101.
geg6
Oprah and Jon Bon Jovi are to pull in the moms. But there’s some serious star power among the yoot in this bunch. They love Amy Poehler and Kal Penn. Alicia Keys is pretty popular. Funny or Die is producing web videos for free. And the Grammys and Latin Grammys (and their members) have a pretty wide reach in all demographics (except maybe the very olds), but definitely among the young. Fuck the NFL. And fuck the GOP. They can all sit around listening to Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood and rot in their hate.
Sasha
The only person with perhaps more credibility than Oprah is Cosby. Having her pitch for Obamacare would put many minds to rest.
Kay
@Baud:
Right, but at the time they didn’t know what would happen, that this was essentially the last gasp of this particular divisive mechanism. At the time they were all crowing and puffed-up about how brilliant they were (they later lied about it, although OH Republicans took credit for Bush’s win at the time).
I just think it’s a really recent example of codified, state sanctioned bigotry that should be worn like a badge until they, personally, undo it. Compassionate conservatives, my ass. It was vicious and mean-spirited and carefully calculated.
Baud
@Kay:
We both know they’re not going to undo it. Hopefully, the Dems can gain some power next election and undo it for them (although not sure how unified Ohio Dems are on equality).
Shakezula
I like it. It reminds me of the attempt to stop Medicare by getting a certain popular male actor to tell doctors’ wives that Medicare = Commiesoshulism. I am sure the WH is savoring the irony.
EDIT: And hilarity will ensue when the GOP gets their celebrity pals to issue a countermeasure. Someone sober up Ted Nugget!
Kay
@Baud:
My personal opinion is it has lost it’s “juice” as far as promoting turn-out among opponents. It’s almost weird to recall how “hot” it was in 2004, how people were belligerently demanding we all sign on to what I considered insane targeting of (nearly) specific people. This is a small city. It was personal.
I don’t think it’s flipped the other way, though, where it would drive supporters to the polls.
I do keep it in mind when people tell me I worry too much about them targeting other groups with affirmatively discriminatory election rules and such. Really? They won’t? They did just that less than ten years ago, happily and enthusiastically. They’d do it in a heartbeat if they could get past a federal judge.
gene108
@Kay:
Oh common Kay. Boys will be boys.
Do birds bird? Do bees bee?
Conservatives do what it takes to win and everyone (in the MSM) loves a winner.
The Red Pen
@Shakezula:
If you compare the quality of that narrative to the quality of “health insurance is a good idea,” I think you’ll see where the comparison fails.
Right before I got banned from Free Republic, I got into a mini flame war with an idiot (but I repeat myself) who “wasn’t going to sign up for Obamacare.” I told him that Obamacare isn’t something you sign up for, it is a law that says you have insurance.
He claimed that not having insurance was somehow FREE MARKET and that he was going to stay healthy so that he wouldn’t need health insurance. He then turned into the “instant Internet small business owner,” glibsplaining that I wouldn’t understand what small business has to contend with; he touted his knowledge by listing off some employment forms, including the EEO 101. This is a voluntary form that only applies to companies larger that 100 people. I pointed out that if he built a company of over 100 employees and couldn’t even get insurance for himself out of the deal, he was a pretty huge failure. Things went downhill from there.
Anyway, the real issue is that this guy is — and people like him are — terrified of health costs. They desperately need insurance, and they know this at some level, but just can’t help working against that because SOSHULIZM. So you have bullshit like this urging people to “opt out” of Obamacare with brilliant advice like:
It then follows this up with “how to be sort of insured”:
So… be insured, just don’t be insured through an exchange. Also, make sure you have a high-deductible plan. I have a high-deductible plan. It sucks, but I can afford it. I can’t imagine what it’s doing to the entry-level people who work for my company.
A recent trip to urgent care for bronchitis cost about $250 — and that didn’t include the prescription (I know this because of my high deductible plan).
So that $250 doctor visit would be — what? — $225 if translated to post-tax cost?
So be insured, but on a cafeteria plan that probably won’t cover something that will actually happen to you.
So, this is the counter argument folks. Rank stupidity. Yes, 27% of the people will see it as genius, but a lot of them already have insurance through their employer and they’re not going to give it up (I don’t know of any employers who will pay you extra if you opt out of the employer-sponsored plan).
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Random open threadiness.
South Carolina as seen from Charleston.
gene108
@The Red Pen:
Just a nit-pick on high deductible plans, you do not pay the cash price for an in-network doctor’s visit. You get the benefit of the negotiated insurance discount for most medical procedures, so if a doctors visit is $100 but the insurance negotiated a 50% discount, you should be billed $50.
Of course doctors and urgent care offices, have no immediate way of knowing what an insurance would reimburse until they submit the claim. Some offices let you skip paying up front and you get the bill with the insurance discounts factored in when they mail you the bill.
Other offices ask you to pay the cash price upfront and leave it to you to sort it out with your insurance about reimbursements.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Idiotic idea.
Guaranteed Republican response: if Obamacare is so awesome, why aren’t any of the people shilling for it on it?
An unforced error from administration that’s had too many of them and cannot afford many more.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I gather Oprah’s star has faded since she gave up her show, but I imagine this is aimed at the parents of the twenty-somethings who need to sign up.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@prufrock: That’s what I figured would happen if I had gotten sick, which luckily I didn’t. I think one of the biggest advantages of Obamacare is that those policies will actually have to pay out. That’s one of the crappiest problems with our health insurance system – you can do the right thing and get insurance if you’re young and healthy, but what’s the point if the insurance company won’t do the right thing and pay out if you get sick? Paying your premiums is just basically giving them free money for nothing. Makes you feel like a sucker. But . . . that will no longer be a problem under Obamacare.
The Red Pen
@gene108:
Yes, I did not pay the full 100% bill, but it was around $150, if I recall correctly. It would have been around $250 for someone uninsured, however, and $150 (plus meds) is a lot of money for a lot of people, especially, the young people the article was urging to skip out on insurance.
Ruckus
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Hey shouty
They probably have insurance through one of the Unions they belong to as entertainers. They also make a pretty decent living and can afford insurance.
What else you think you got?
BC
@gelfling545: This. Oprah will influence the parents who will then influence their young adults.
tybee
@raven:
excellent news indeed.
Paul in KY
@Kay: A cemetary is not a ‘political subdivision’, although one could construe the entity that creates the death certificate to be a ‘political subdivision’.,
I hope they get to be buried next to each other.
The Raven on the Hill
I wonder how well Obamacare will work outside of California and New York? There are going to be some places—states with smaller markets, and states with Republican governments—where it is not going to work well at all. People will have problems in these places. And when the huge population of 20-somethings stuck in low-paying shit jobs are required to pay for insurance? How is this marketing campaign going to look then? Oh, right, this is going to be a popular program. Because—because why, exactly?
Chris
@The Red Pen:
I love it. “Yes, you should be insured. But not through the government. Because government bad. So if it’s a choice between being uninsured and being insured through the government, you should go uninsured. Yes, we fully expect you to compromise your health in order to make an ideological statement. The Party comes first.”
Paul in KY
@CONGRATULATIONS!: We’re all on Obamacare (if we have Health Insurance), you idiot.
Anya
@The Red Pen: glibsplaining is my favorite new word.
JoyfulA
@Shakezula: Isn’t Ted Nugent either dead or in jail?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Ruckus: Has a fact ever deterred a Republican from believing something stupid?
Also, for God’s sake, Oprah and Bon Jovi and the rest of those folks cited are so old they’re not even relevant to the parents of young people. The grandparents of those young people, yeah.
Kay
@Paul in KY:
Yeah, I think it’s stronger than that. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the entity that issues the death cert is a “political subdivision” in Ohio.
They applied this dumb law to domestic violence when it first passed. It was so poorly drafted it conflicted with a criminal law. They had to hurry up and fix the criminal law.
tybee
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
i like it. :)
JoyfulA
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Exactly how my South-of-Broad mother-in-law saw it when forced to traipse around the state with her utility company engineer husband’s relocations. Fortunately, the career tour didn’t include Bob Jones country.
Paul in KY
@Kay: That sucks for those 2 gentlemen, and the state of Ohio. Maybe that injunction can stay in place for them?
Culture of Truth
Go outside of the “exchange” and buy a high-quality, high-deductible health plan that meets your needs.
Stick it to the man!!! Take that, Obama!!!!
LAC
Yeah, you are, but would BJ be without that? It’s ok that the White House does this, right?
gene108
@The Red Pen:
What would work the best is a move towards HRA plans, where the employer funds all or part of the deductible.
I think high deductible plans will replace more and more traditional plans.
The way to make an HRA work is to jack up the deductible so the employer pays a low fixed premium and would use the savings to fund the deductible.
From my own experience premiums did not drop enough for an HRA to be viable, but YMMV.
Charlie Dodgson
Well, from a purely political point of view, Democrats don’t need to persuade The Youth; that’s where they’re already polling strongly. They need to attract The Olds.
MomSense
May I just say that it really pisses me off that the White House has to go out and find celebrities to educate people on what is actually in ObamaCare. We know from polling that the provisions in ObamaCare are wildly popular even with Independents and Republicans but they do not know that these provisions are in the law.
We have how many fricking channels who are on air 24 hours a day 7 days a week and we have lots of newspapers, blogs, magazines, and people still don’t know what is in ObamaCare?! Makes you wonder what our media consider their mission in our society. And here is another ugly truth. Many of the so called progressive blogs did a great deal of misinformation and inaccurate reporting as well. We have plenty of panic whores on the left who seek page hits, advertising dollars, and contributions based on selling outrage.
I’m happy that celebrities are going to try to help but I am beyond frustrated that we have to go to such lengths because of our irresponsible and incompetent media.
Mnemosyne
@The Raven on the Hill:
You know, I would like to see some numbers about how many 20-somethings voluntarily pass up having health insurance. When I was working crap minimum-wage jobs, I always grabbed whatever health insurance was available, because I knew that one accident or one serious illness would wipe me out financially.
So who are these 20-somethings who voluntarily do without insurance and wouldn’t sign up for it even if it became available to them?
gene108
@Culture of Truth:
The rise of the health insurance black market for people, who want insurance but do not want Obamacare.
MaryJane
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Hey BIBLE DUDE,
Were you a teenage pregnancy? Bon Jovi is younger than me and my first-born is 27. I’d love for him to have Obamacare but he recently moved from California to less-dumb Carolina.
The Red Pen
@gene108:
I think you’re right. It might have a silver lining. People will have a limited exposure to the outrageous costs of medical care. Perhaps there will be competition for customers who are still within their deductible.
To contrast the $250/$150 plus cost of meds: last time I went to London, my wife got an ear infection on the plane. She went to the NHS. She saw a doctor after 10 minutes. They were quite apologetic about the high cost to a non-NHS patient, but it was about $80 including meds.
VividBlueDotty
@gene108: This is actually kind of brilliant. Someone could get rich marketing their insurance plan this way. Bwahahahaha.
different-church-lady
Memo to the Whitehouse: DO NOT TALK ABOUT HOW YOUNG PEOPLE ARE MORTAL AND CAN GET SICK AND DIE. It’s the wrong fucking message.
Instead, talk about how the exchanges will create paths to affordable coverage. Young people would love to have insurance. They’re just not very keen on the idea of turning over a third of their income for something they’re unlikely to need.
RSR
Bon Jovi has been a stellar advocate for the poor and housing-poor here in Philadelphia. Working with long time non-profit Project HOME, Bon Jovi’s foundation has provided much need seed money and promontion.
I think he’s walked the walk, and has the standing to be influential.
http://community.projecthome.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=477
fuckwit
Bon Jovi is actually a pretty cool guy. I couldn’t stand his music, but he’s cut from the Bruce Springsteen bolt of social-responsibility cloth, good on him.
And yes, Bon Jovi won’t collect “the youth”, but he’ll collect the 40-somethings who walked around in the late 80s listenening to music by guys wearing multicolored satin scarves.
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
I know I keep harping on this, but I really don’t get this “young people don’t want insurance” meme. Young people are not stupid. They have friends who got seriously ill, or had major accidents. Girls know that they’re going to want to get birth control and that they have to get it from a doctor.
I really have no idea who these young people are who don’t want insurance, because I’ve never met any of them. Is it a bunch of glibertarian dudes in Silicon Valley?
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
I got an e-mail today that my local yarn store is having a health care forum (in Burbank, CA) with a rep from the state to explain everything. I’m tempted to go and see what it’s like, but I actually am heartened to see citizens be sufficiently interested that they’re organizing their own forums.
Gretchen
My sister told me yesterday that it’s a good thing that my daughter is having a baby this year, rather than next year, when Obamacare will have destroyed the American health care system. She was serious.
Revrick
It’s not just the young whipper-snappers who are uninsured. Ask a 50-something who’s lost his/her job.
BlurredLines in ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: Along those lines, I was going to point out that Oprah and Bon Jovi appeal to the media and will attract more media coverage. I think it’s interesting that they’re working the youth angle with the hipper sources like Funny or Die (they need to get Lena Dunham, STAT) – we keep getting told that young people don’t want to buy insurance.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
Leave it to the yarnies to come up with this! We are definitely going to have to take matters in our own hands and be citizen journalists and be the public servants some of our elected officials refuse to be.
Ruckus
I’d like to know of anyone of any age who doesn’t want health care.
I’m one of the people who doesn’t give a shit about having health care insurance. I do give about a billion shits about health care. And in this country for the foreseeable future that means having health care insurance. Unless you use the VA. And even than you are subject to means testing. So if you make or have too much money you either have co-pays or you are not eligible. Unless you fall into a service disabled or POW category.
Ruckus
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Do you actually read what you type?
Ever?