Rhode Island’s latest gimmick to bolster Obamacare ahead of the March 31 deadline encourages parents to follow and “nag” their children through various social media sites in order to coax them into signing up for health insurance.
Health Source RI provides parents with a “Nag Toolkit,” which walks them through the sign up process for social media sites Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and the dating sites OKCupid and Tinder, Campus Reform reports.
“Your kids don’t want to get health insurance,” the site states. “They also don’t want to get nagged. Let’s find out which one they want less. Help us get your kids insured by nagging them about health insurance where they least expect it.”
The campaign is one among many that are being used by both state-based insurance exchanges and the Obama administration to increase the number of sign-ups among young people. The relatively healthy cohort is highly coveted because they will help subsidize older and less healthy Obamacare enrollees.
To help tech-averse parents, the website provides them with tutorials on how to download the web apps for the different sites then provides prompts for “how to nag them mercilessly.”
For the dating website OKCupid, the Rhode Island agency advises parents to download OKCupid’s phone app and then to “create a provocative username”. “Send them messages saying “get health insurance,” Health Source RI suggests.
In its prompt for Tinder, a hook-up site, Health Source RI encourages parents to upload pictures of themselves with signs reading “Get health insurance” on them.
The group also has a plan in the event that parents can’t navigate the social media sites.
“If this all seems too confusing, give us your kid’s email address and we’ll do the nagging,” reads the site.
The “Nag Toolkit” is similar to those used in other states to get young people to sign up for Obamacare. In Colorado, the grassroots group Progress Now and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative created numerous “Got Insurance?” ads targeted mostly at young men.
The ad from that campaign that received the most buzz was one depicting several young men doing keg stands. The ad encouraged young men to purchase what it called “Brosurance.”
Last week, an episode of “Between Two Ferns,” an online show that is popular with young people, featured President Obama pitching his program in an interview with host Zach Galifinakis.
(h/t Campus Reform)
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