An Obamacare outreach nonprofit will be advertising the health care law this spring by trapping partygoers who are standing in lines at clubs, officials announced during a conference call.
Enroll America, the advocacy group Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has supported, held a strategy call focusing on how to target potential customers now that the pool of eligible Obamacare exchange customers is increasingly limited, the Daily Mail reports.
“If it’s a health fair, we wanna have a a table set up. If it’s a long line at a night club, we want somebody walking up and down it, talking to folks while they’re stuck there,” said John Gilbert, Enroll America’s National Field Director.
Obamacare exchange enrollment is now closed in almost all cases until the next enrollment period, which was delayed until November 15, just after midterm elections. Only those who experience a major life change will be eligible to sign up for health insurance on an exchange until then.
“Major life events'”include getting married, divorced, fired or turning 26 — the age when adults are now finally kicked off their parents’ insurance plan. Enroll America is trying to tap into the upper-20s cohort of young invincibles in order to keep people signing up for Obamacare coverage throughout the summer.
Young Invincibles, an Obamacare advocacy group focused on 18-35 year-olds, projects that 11,500 Americans will turn 26 every day until the next open enrollment period, a total of 2.6 million young adults according to The Daily Mail.
Increasing youth participation in exchanges is just as vital today as it was before the first open enrollment period ended. Nationwide, Obamacare exchanges garnered enough young invincible enrollees to make up 28 percent of total exchange customers.
The proportion remains more than ten percent below the Obama administration’s minimum threshold for success, potentially leaving exchange customers open to premium hikes if the current risk pool is not healthy enough.
Along with targeting young adults in line at clubs and bars, Enroll America will reportedly also recruit new sign-ups at courthouses — presumably focusing on those with significant life changes such as marriage and divorce — and CVS drug stores.
The Obamacare advocacy group pushing the new strategy was recently the center of controversy, when a federal report found that outgoing HHS Secretary Sebelius requested that several organizations donate large sums of money to the group. After Sebelius’ fundraising efforts, Enroll America received $13 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (RELATED: Report: Obamacare outreach group gets $13 million at administration’s request)
Follow Sarah on Twitter
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
