http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cRsfW0Jv8
As I pointed out again yesterday, conservatives are trying to create opposition to the Affordable Care Act with a massive misinformation campaign. An example can be seen in the above ad from Generation Opportunity:
Generation Opportunity, a Virginia-based group that is part of a coalition of right-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire businessmen and political activists Charles and David Koch, will launch a six-figure campaign aimed at convincing young people to “opt-out” of the Obamacare exchanges. Later this month, the group will begin a tour of 20 college campuses, where they plan to set up shop alongside pro-Obamacare activists such as Enroll America that are working to sign people up for the insurance exchanges.
Generation Opportunity intends to host events at college football tailgate parties festivals, where “brand ambassadors” (read: hot young people) will pass out beer koozies that read “opt out,” pizza and literature about the health care law. Some events may have impromptu dance parties with DJ’s, complete with games of cornhole and competitions for prizes, organizers said.
Their message: You don’t have to sign up for Obamacare. And they want students to sign a pledge not get insurance plans set up by the law.
The ad shows Uncle Sam playing doctor, trying to do a pap smear on a young girl. A similar ad was made of a Creepy Uncle Sam trying to do a prostate exam on a young man.
Beyond the fact that prostate exams are not typically done on the age group these ads are aimed at, these ads spread misinformation and provide terrible advice as they try to get y0ung people to refuse to purchase health insurance. Under Obamacare, most college age students actually do not even need to purchase health insurance because insurance plans are required to cover dependent students until age 26. Despite the advice in this ad, those who are not otherwise covered are certainly better off purchasing insurance through the exchange where insurance coverage is generally more comprehensive and less expensive than it has been in the past.
Under any situation, going without health insurance is risky. In the past many people had no choice. It would make no sense for people to refuse to take a good deal under Obamacare as opposed to risking bankruptcy should they develop an expensive medical problem while uninsured. Believe me, if you get sick, the Kochs might be happy you helped them make an extremist political point, but they will not pay your health care bills.
The insinuation that a Creepy Uncle Sam or the government will be running their health care is also false. The Affordable Care Act allows people to obtain private health insurance. They will be seen by the same doctors as everyone else. If they currently have a doctor, there is no way to absolutely guarantee that their doctor will accept every plan, as is the case today, but the chances of keeping their current doctor are greater with the Affordable Care Act than in the past, as I explained last month.
The facts in this ad are so demonstrably false, and the logic so incoherent, if college students are dumb enough to fall for this ad, we have bigger problems in this country than lying wing-nuts.