States to spend millions promoting ObamaCare

by Jonathan Ingram If you’re like many Americans, you’re already worried about the impact ObamaCare will have on you and your family. So, in an effort to avoid what Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., termed a “huge train wreck” in the making, the federal government has enlisted the help of several state governments to market the law. The...

by Jonathan Ingram

If you’re like many Americans, you’re already worried about the impact ObamaCare will have on you and your family. So, in an effort to avoid what Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., termed a “huge train wreck” in the making, the federal government has enlisted the help of several state governments to market the law.

The Washington Post reports that states are planning to spend millions of federal tax dollars marketing ObamaCare. Some of those ideas include having airplanes fly banners across beaches, producing ObamaCare-branded coffee cups, sponsoring iPhone charging stations, handing out ObamaCare-branded sunscreen and asking musicians to promote the law through radio and TV ads. Washington state is even considering placing ObamaCare-branded portable toilets at music events and festivals around the state.

And, of course, Illinois is at the forefront of this new marketing strategy. According to state officials, the Quinn administration plans to spend somewhere between $30 million and $35 million in federal grants advertising ObamaCare. That’s a lot of tax money to promote a law most Americans want repealed.

Of course, ObamaCare supporters have their work cut out for them. After all, it’s probably pretty hard to market a law that’s set to increase individual health insurance premiums by more than 50 percent in Illinois. And even after accounting for new federal subsidies, many will see their premiums go up.

Despite working for more than three years to implement the law, the Obama administration has moved to delay several important aspects of the law, most recently the employer mandate. The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently noted that the administration had blown several deadlines and was behind schedule in implementing the law. So why, exactly, are we wasting millions of tax dollars on advertising?