Here's a bright idea from the administration: Get the
big professional sports leagues involved in the education effort for Obamacare.
“The NFL, the NBA, and others were contacted by the administration,” a spokesman from the NFL told BuzzFeed in an email. “We have made no commitments nor discussed any details with administration officials. We are in the process of trying to clarify what it is the administration would propose. There is nothing further to report.” [...]
Like universal health care itself, government partnerships with professional sports to promote universal health-care insurance options was pioneered in Massachusetts. The state partnered with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 as a way to reach young, healthy males, a demographic that made up the highest percentage of uninsured Massachusetts residents and was crucial to keep premium costs down. “It depends, frankly and ultimately, on the participation of everyone,” Gov. Deval Patrick said at a news conference in 2007.
The target audience is, just like in Massachusetts, young healthy males for whom health insurance is toward the bottom of the list of life's priorities. It's a demographic that's also pretty key to keeping the whole system working and overall health care spending costs down—the more young, healthy people there are paying insurance premiums without costing insurance companies much, the more costs are kept down and premiums can be kept low.
Backlash to the news is depressingly predictable.
Football fans should be just a little bit insulted that Americans for Tax Reform thinks they're that dumb. After all, most taxpaying football fans are perfectly capable of being entertained
and informed simultaneously. Why does ATR hate sports fans?