$1B to Be Spent to Promote Obamacare in 'Normandy Invasion' of Health System

Obamacare proponents are reportedly expected to spend $1 billion on a six-month campaign to get Americans to sign up for coverage under “Obamacare” when the healthcare exchanges open on October 1. 

The Obama administration intends to use social media promotions to target “young adults in urban areas that are home to many of the nation’s estimated 47 million uninsured people.”

Reuters reports that proponents of Obamacare, including “health insurers, hospitals, and health systems,” and groups like AARP and “charities to Walgreen and CVS pharmacy chains,” are also expected to pour in $1 billion in marketing initiatives. 

“This is a Normandy invasion of the health system,” Uwe Reinhardt, a healthcare economist at Princeton University, told Reuters. 

On Tuesday, the White House “kicked off a six-month campaign to encourage” Americans to sign up for Obamacare. They have also employed celebrities and even some sports teams to help in the efforts. 

Reuters notes that “the massive public education campaign faces a long, difficult slog to persuade nearly 3 million healthy young people with low to moderate incomes to purchase private insurance.”