There are going to be so many people that will benefit from the Affordable Care Act. The more that people come to see the positive impact this law has not only on their own life, but those around them the more dramatic will be the swing in public polling on this matter.
Singers, instrumentalists and music promoters gathered this week at a recording studio in Madison to give voice to a cause affecting some of them and many of their peers: health insurance.
They recorded “Sing Forward” — think “We are the World” meets Obamacare, with Wisconsin-themed lyrics — a song encouraging artists and others who are uninsured to sign up for coverage on the new exchanges.
It’s one of a few “guerilla marketing” efforts in the Madison area for the Affordable Care Act, supported by a $4,750 grant from Public Health Madison and Dane County to a startup business called Ninjas for Health.
States that decided to run their own exchanges qualified for federal grants to produce slick promotional spots, such as Minnesota’s TV ads featuring Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in the “land of 10,000 reasons to get health insurance.”
Wisconsin, like most states, opted for a federally run exchange, with little money for outreach. The federal exchange, at http://www.healthcare.gov, has been troubled by glitches that have slowed enrollment, which started Oct. 1.
But the glitches haven’t stalled grassroots, low-budget efforts in Dane County to raise awareness about the exchanges, online marketplaces where people can shop for insurance, in many cases with government subsidies.
The efforts include focus groups of young, uninsured men and social events targeting specific groups, such as a happy hour for service workers Sunday at Brocach Irish Pub and a planned gathering for entrepreneurs.
Those and other groups, such as musicians, have a high proportion of people who are uninsured, said Kyle Pfister, who this year started Ninjas for Health, a public health innovations company.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 