Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Health Insurance > Health Insurance

Obama’s ‘less desperate’ PPACA press tour

By Arit John

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

(Bloomberg Politics) — With the first major deadline of the year for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) open enrollment period arriving today — Dec. 15 -President Barack Obama has been engaging in a short media tour to encourage enrollment.

A week ago, he appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” and on Friday he hit ESPN radio’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” a radio station in Raleigh, and “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” (which will air today).

Open enrollment doesn’t end until Feb. 15, but this season’s enrollment period is only half as long as last season’s. The main difference is that, as Alex Wayne at Bloomberg News reported, enrollments are expected to exceed (lowered) expectations, thanks to a working website and new customers.

During the PPACA’s enrollment deadlines last winter and spring, the question was whether 7 million people would enroll, especially young adults. That spurred advertisements during the Olympics, a video featuring Michelle Obama with Jonah Hill and Adam Levine’s moms attempting to guilt people into getting insured, and Obama appearances on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “Between Two Ferns.”

See also: Celebrities helping Obama promote exchanges.

Besides being duller, this media tour hasn’t inspired the same debate. After “Ferns,” Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly argued it was “a little bit desperate” and Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have done it, Breitbart News said the president was “reduced to working the talk show circuit like a B-lister promoting a cable pilot,” and during a press briefing an ABC News reporter asked if the presidency had been “damaged.”

While the president mentioned ‘Obamacare’ during his ESPN interview, the discussion focused on other topics: pro athletes weighing in on controversial issues (as several have done after recent police shootings); NFL conduct standards; and speculation about the basketball season. For example, Business Insider focused on the fact that Obama spends his mornings watching ESPN.

During his “Colbert” appearance, the president spent nearly seven minutes reading off Obamacare talking points while jokes appeared in a sidebar—Republicans’ health-care alternative would be “Walk-It-Off.gov,” etc. That was the closest appearance to “Ferns” style-wise, but less well received.

“The ‘Between Two Ferns’ thing was funny and even a bit edgy,” media critic Eric Wemple wrote at theWashington Post. “This Colbert stunt wasn’t; it was boring talking points recited in front of a roaring studio audience and wrapped in the comic genius of Comedy Central.”

Maybe you can afford to be less edgy when you’re not scrambling to enroll people.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.