The Obama Administration hopes to form a PR campaign with the National Basketball Association, targeting its fans to sign up for health insurance.
Why the NBA?
Well, the NBA finals are now over. (And the Miami Heat came out on top after battling through a seven-game series against the San Antonio Spurs.) This gives time for the NBA to market Obamacare.
Also, pre-season begins in October – the same month when the enrollment period begins for Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. Exchanges are the online marketplaces where people sign up for health plans. In states that create their own exchanges, people making an income between 100-400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) may qualify for subsidies to offset premium costs. Even better timing for the NBA to advertise the federal health law.
In addition, the Obama Administration believes advertising Obamacare through the NBA will encourage the organization’s young, healthy, and active fans to sign up for health insurance.
So, what can we take away from this PR campaign proposal?
The administration is desperate for young, healthy individuals to obtain health coverage. If these individuals refuse to do so, they must pay a penalty in the form of a tax. The penalty, however, comes at a much lower cost than otherwise purchasing health coverage. More and more young “invincibles” don’t see the point in signing up for coverage until they get sick anyways, since the law now prohibits health insurers from discriminating against consumers with pre-existing conditions.
The invincibles that refuse to purchase health insurance via the exchanges defeats Obamacare’s intent of offering health plans at lower premiums to the older, sicker population. This is because the young and healthy act as the “anchor” that brings down premiums for sicker patients. They will be paying higher premiums than before to subsidize costlier consumers. As it is most likely that this subpopulation will say “no” to signing up for coverage, a majority of older, sicker patients will be left on the exchange and will have to pay much higher premiums than anticipated.
