The White House is once again trying desperately to convince young people to purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, this time creating a post on BuzzFeed that’s complete with GIFs and Vice President Joe Biden.
The Obama administration published the post Thursday via BuzzFeed’s community platform, which allows users to create and distribute content themselves.
Authored by the White House and titled “7 Reasons Why Vice President Joe Biden Thinks You Should Get Covered By March 31,” the BuzzFeed post outlines reasons why young people should sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. And, staying true to the website’s style, the White House even went so far as to include GIFs featuring the veep.
“Folks, the deadline to sign up for health insurance is March 31. If you’re not covered by then, you won’t be able to enroll again until next year,” the post states. “So this is serious. Need some extra inspiration? Here are seven reasons why Vice President Biden thinks you should get covered right now.”
Those reasons include: It won’t break the bank, it’s good to have choices and it’s a BFD — a play on Biden whispering to Obama, “this is a big f**king deal” when the healthcare bill was signed into law — among others.
Though the White House lists the deadline to enroll in Obamacare as March 31, the Obama administration announced earlier this week it would be allowing consumers to purchase health insurance under the law until mid-April.
While the Obama administration made an attempt to capture many aspects of BuzzFeed, reporters working for the site were less than impressed, taking to Twitter to grade the White House’s attempt, Mediaite reported.
I give this BuzzFeed post by the White House a B http://t.co/irccm8Occq
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) March 27, 2014
White House’s BuzzFeed Community post pushes ppl to sign up for ACA by 3/31, doesn’t mention new extension http://t.co/qGfUXajD4T
— E McMorris-Santoro (@EvanMcSan) March 27, 2014
Um not sure this is going to do the trick. How about that sit-down interview @vp? http://t.co/TIBCGCKznm
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) March 27, 2014
The BuzzFeed post is the latest of a long list of attempts the Obama administration has made to encourage young people to register for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. In order for the law to succeed, more than 2.7 million 18- to 34-year-olds need to enroll in the law’s exchanges.
Thus far, however, youth enrollment has lagged significantly despite promotions featuring celebrities, pitches centering around March Madness and appearances from President Obama on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show and Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show.
The latest enrollment figures from the Department of Health and Human Services reported only 31 percent of those who selected plans were under the age of 34. Overall enrollment hit 6 million Thursday, according to the White House.
