World News Korner

Koch brother funded group uses free beer, Taco Bell, and gift cards to lure young people away from Obamacare.

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:

As the battle over the healthcare law grinds on — Republicans no closer to victory than when they forced the government shutdown — a different fight was rising on a recent Saturday from inside Sharkey’s, a bar near the campus of Virginia Tech, 260 miles away.

Lured by free beer, gift cards and the chance to win an iPad, 100 students heard a pitch from the young staffers of a group named Generation Opportunity: Obamacare is a bad deal, and you should opt out.

With enrollment in the insurance marketplaces under way, and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on a public-awareness campaign, critics are aiming a provocative counter-effort at a critical population: millennials, age 18 to 29, who may not feel the need or have the money for insurance.

Because if too few young, healthy people sign up, Obamacare will be denied the financial blood to support older, more needy participants. So the race is on for the attention of 2.7 million people deemed necessary to enroll in the first year for Obamacare to be successful.

Generation Opportunity, which formed in 2011 and gets funding in part from the conservative Koch brothers, is about to embark on a tour of 20 college towns nationally, including a Nov. 9 stop at the University of Miami. The pitch is that you shouldn’t feel compelled by the government to buy insurance, and that it may be cheaper outside the marketplaces.

A blueprint for an upcoming tailgate calls for games such as beer pong and cornhole, free Taco Bell and beer. Pictures of people signing petitions to opt out would be sent over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The group, and more recognizable conservative organizations such as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, show how the fight has shifted from Congress to the grassroots. Young people are among the law’s most ardent supporters, but at the same time many are unaware of the benefits, providing an opening for critics.

I knew this was coming.

The next best chance that the Republicans have to cripple the Affordable Care Act is to keep younger, healthier, participants from signing up. And with the deep pockets of some of these groups they could afford a hell of a lot of beer and Crunchwrap Supremes.

The Obama administration is going to have to really do some serious advertising, and possibly introduce some incentives of their own, to attract young participants.

Ultimately, much like very other desperate attempt, this petition thing will not do them much good. (After all what stops these kids from signing a petition, drinking their fill of beer, and then signing up for health insurance the next day?)

However I think it behooves all of us to keep a close watch on this kind of sneaky bullshit.

By the way the group responsible for this, "Generation Opportunity," are also the ones who brought us this ultra creep advertisement.

If ALL of their ideas are that bad perhaps the Obama administration won't have to try that hard to combat them after all.

Source