Sebelius uses video contest to attract young people to ObamaCare

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced a video contest offering cash prizes to young people for pro-ObamaCare videos. According to Sebelius: “Soon the Health Insurance Marketplace will give uninsured young people the opportunity to enroll in affordable health insurance, and the Healthy Young America video contest will help them tell their stories to other young...

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently announced a video contest offering cash prizes to young people for pro-ObamaCare videos. According to Sebelius:

“Soon the Health Insurance Marketplace will give uninsured young people the opportunity to enroll in affordable health insurance, and the Healthy Young America video contest will help them tell their stories to other young people.”

This is exactly the kind of out-of-touch bureaucratic cluelessness that has become a hallmark of the new federal Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare. (If you are wondering where the video idea came from, this could be a hint.)

Not only is the language out of touch, but it’s also dishonest and dangerously misleading. Under the new law, health insurance premiums are expected to skyrocket and those increases are expected to hit young people the hardest. And while federal subsidies might offset some of those costs, the reality is that there is no reason to believe that young people will have any reason to sign up in large numbers – especially when they see the price tag.

A young, healthy person in Chicago could face a premium insurance increase from $756 per year to $2,268 per year under ObamaCare. Tax credits could offset some of those costs. For example, a 25-year-old non-smoking male who makes $25,000 per year might be eligible for $538 in tax credits to buy health insurance under the health insurance exchange The same young man earning $20,000 would be eligible for a more generous subsidy, but would still face an estimated 35 percent increase, even after applying the subsidy.

Table 1. Estimated annual premiums and subsidies for young, non-smoking male in Chicago with no children and $25,000 annual income

Table 2. Estimated annual premiums and subsidies for young, non-smoking male in Chicago with no children and $20,000 annual income

You have to wonder: If young people face potentially higher premiums than they do today, what difference will a video make?

Unfortunately, Sebelius is less concerned with young people’s well-being and more concerned with the fate of ObamaCare. Attracting young people into the insurance exchange is essential if the ObamaCare health exchanges have any hope of working. That’s because the exchange is built on pooling the risk of older, sicker individuals with younger, healthier individuals. While young adults should have access to affordable health care options, ObamaCare threatens to do the opposite – and more.

In addition to skyrocketing premiums, young people should be concerned with violations of their financial and health care privacy. Thirteen attorneys general from across the country have expressed serious privacy concerns with the exchange. The ObamaCare law has faced numerous implementation delays, including the requiring businesses to provide health insurance to employees, and requiring health insurance companies to cap out-of-pocket spending for consumers who purchase insurance through the health care exchange, which offers little to no protection for young people against large, unexpected health costs.

Today’s generation of young adults has the most sophisticated understanding of technology and media to date. Gimmicky public relations stunts will do little to distract young people from the fact that ObamaCare fails to deliver on the important goals of health care access and affordability for their generation.