March Madness at the White House

03-21-2014
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This weekend marks four years since the president signed the Affordable Care Act into law and time has done little to lessen the controversy surrounding the massive new health insurance system.

As the president watches the clock wind down on open enrollment, his administration is moving into a full court press in the White House's own version of March Madness.

The play is to win over as many young people as possible. After appearing on the Internet show "Between Two Ferns" with actor Zach Galifianakis where he was subjected to questions like, "how does it feel to be the last black president?" Mr. Obama has also appeared on "The Ellen Degeneres Show," called into pop music and sports radio shows, appealed to mothers and highlighted the frequency of sports injuries all in an effort to encourage more young people to sign up.

As the March 31 deadline approaches the administration is still well short of its revised goal of 6 million registrants in the first year. However, perhaps more important than the total number of registrants, for Obamacare to work, it needs more healthy young people to pay for the disproportionate number of sick and older people who've already signed up.

Without them the new system bleeds money. The administration has said it needs 40 percent of registrants to be young adults and so far, only about 25 percent of the people who've signed up fit the bill.

When the buzzer sounds, will the Obama administration meet its goal or will critics of the Affordable Care Act get to say "I told ya so?"

Stay tuned.

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