The White House is desperate to sign up Millennials for Obamacare. With the March 31 enrollment deadline closing fast, the latest figures show that only 22 percent of the Obamacare sign-ups are between ages 18 and 34. That’s a far cry from the 40 percent that the White House wants.

Blame the Obamacare marketing team. Since the exchanges launched in October, the team’s attempts to persuade us to sign up have been inappropriate, incoherent and simply insulting.

The list of examples is long and painful, but the “Brosurance” ads, which have gone viral across the country, are the most famous flop by far. In print and social media, these ads paint the picture of Millennials as drunks and dolts.

One ad shows three young men — “bros” — doing a keg stand. Its tagline: “Don’t tap into your beer money to cover those medical bills.” Another tries to link flu shots to liquor shots. The worst ad shows a guy and a girl about to hook up. It reads, “I hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control.”

This insulted more Millennials than it convinced. The spots ultimately reached a huge portion of the youth market, but only because the outrage was so intense that the ads were lampooned on national television. When Comedy Central showed the ads to a group of 20-somethings, every last one expressed disgust and disappointment.

Those same Millennials were likely left scratching their heads at some of the White House’s other marketing ploys.

Take the recent Magic Johnson ad, for instance. It was clearly made by someone who doesn’t understand anyone younger than 30. Most Millennials don’t even know who Magic Johnson is. He retired in 1991. Today’s college students were all born after that, meaning they couldn’t tell you if he played baseball, basketball, or maybe cricket.

Other ads have drawn scorn and ridicule. The “pajama boy” social media campaign led to scathing responses from the media for making Millennials look self-absorbed and annoying. The “Mom jeans” campaign tried, and failed, to link health coverage with awkward-fitting pants. The case for health care had never been less clear.

One of the administration’s allies, Get Covered America, took the confusion a step further. It created a two-minute original song featuring singing cats, dogs, and birds. Intended to spark a nationwide increase in enrollments, the ad was greeted by silence, receiving only 60,000 views on YouTube.

Given such pitiful attempts at reaching the young and the healthy, it’s no surprise that Millennials haven’t responded by signing up for Obamacare in droves. In reality, it’s too expensive for too many Millennials — and none of the marketing campaigns have been slick enough to bury this fact.

Obamacare leaves the average 27 year old facing a gender-averaged 47.5 percent premium increase, according to Forbes. Even after subsidies, that’s an expense that many Millennials can’t afford.

Perversely, such high costs make it even harder for us to purchase health insurance in the future, when we can afford it. By not signing up for expensive plans now, insurance rates will increase as soon as next year — for everyone. That leaves us with two choices: Buy an unaffordable plan now, or wait and buy an unaffordable plan later.

Our only remaining option is to opt out of Obamacare entirely. If the latest numbers are any indication, that’s exactly what Millennials are doing. We know a bad deal when we see one —and we’re not as dumb as Obamacare’s marketers seem to think.

Evan Feinberg is the President of Generation Opportunity.

 

State Sen. Vaneta Becker’s (R-Evansville) bill to encourage better reporting of infant health problems caused by drug addiction in mothers gained final legislative approval today. Senate Bill 408 now heads to the governor’s desk, where it could be signed into law.

Drug-related health problems in newborns, known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), can arise when mothers abuse drugs while pregnant. NAS can cause infants to experience drug dependency, seizures, slow weight gain and many other dangerous symptoms.

SB 408 requires the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) to facilitate study and collaboration among medical experts in order to determine best practices for identifying and reporting NAS cases.

“SB 408 will bring everyone to the table to talk about this tragic health concern among newborns,” Becker said. “These discussions will hopefully lead to better awareness of NAS, stronger strategies to deter drug abuse by pregnant women and more effective treatments for infants born with drug dependencies.”

According to the Indiana Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force, the overall rate of newborns being diagnosed with NAS has tripled over the past decade. In 2009, approximately one infant born per hour in the United States had signs of drug withdrawal.

SB 408 passed both the House of Representatives and Senate unanimously.

We have now reached the end of the 2014 legislative session. As you can imagine, ten weeks is not a very long time to tackle all of the important issues that we are faced with, however, I believe that the end product of this session is something we can all be proud of.

At the beginning of session, Speaker of the House Brian Bosma presented the House Republican agenda with other members of our caucus. The agenda included several fundamental issues including cutting taxes, connecting crossroads to communities, equipping our workforce, preparing children for their careers and stopping burdensome regulations. Now that this year’s session has officially come to a close, here is how we addressed each of these issues and delivered on our promises.

One of Indiana’s biggest strengths is its business tax climate. Our fiscal integrity and pro-business policies have allowed us to continue to attract jobs to our state, while other states have found themselves in the red during the recession. In continuing with this reputation and remaining competitive with our neighboring states, it was time that we did something about the business personal property tax (BPPT).

All of our neighboring states either do not have a BPPT or collect it at a lower rate. After receiving input from all interested parties, we wanted to give counties the option of exempting businesses from this tax on new property and increasing the abatement period for counties that wanted to exempt the tax for up to 20 years. The optional exemption will serve as another tool for local governments to use in attracting businesses and investment to their communities.

A favorable tax climate is a very important factor that businesses consider, in addition to infrastructure, workforce development and education. Our state’s expansive transportation network is critical to the Hoosier economy, with 1.7 million jobs depending on them in industries such as tourism, agriculture and retail sales. House Bill (HB) 1002 addresses this issue by transferring highway construction funds already allocated in our 2013 budget to be used immediately. HB 1002 allows a transfer of up to $400M in state funds to be used with upwards of $1.6B in federal dollars supplementing our investment for statewide road construction projects. We recognize the importance of our highway system as the Crossroads of America, and I support connecting Hoosier communities with this appropriation.

Another thing that has made Indiana stand out from many other states is our impressive rate of job creation. Indiana’s unemployment rate has been steadily dropping and is now below seven percent. It can still stand to be even lower; however, we can’t do that without adequately equipping our workforce. That’s where HB 1003 comes in. HB 1003 ensures that Hoosiers

possess the necessary skills to work in a competitive job market by providing additional incentives to employers who partner with education institutions to provide internships in high wage, high demand jobs.

The task of equipping our workforce must start long before high school and college though. In fact, it must start before a child ever gets on the school bus for kindergarten. Children living in poverty are less likely to be enrolled in pre-K programs or have meaningful educational experiences prior to entering kindergarten. Thus, they are more likely to be further behind their peers when they begin their K-12 education. This is particularly an issue in Indiana because we are one of very few states that doesn’t have a publically supported preschool education system.

HB 1004 is historic for Indiana as it establishes a preschool pilot program for students of low-income families. The program is limited to families at 127 percent of the federal poverty level and below, allowing low-income families the opportunity to send their children to pre-school.

While it’s good to pass new laws and provisions to promote a better Indiana, there is another often overlooked duty of the legislature – to repeal measures we have previously passed that are not working or are outdated. In fact, some previous measures are not only ineffective, they are harmful. That’s why the House passed HB 1005. HB 1005 repeals government regulations that are restrictive or just plain detrimental. Taking this important step ensures that we don’t overstep our bounds and that we respect the freedom and liberty of individual Hoosiers as well as businesses.

I hope that now you have a better insight into why I believe this session was such a great success, and I look forward to continuing to build on that success during the interim.