$20 Million PR Push for ACA

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid are spending $20 million on a public relations campaign to sell the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to a public that has already made known its dislike for the law.

The campaign, which ACA requires on its own behalf, is intended to inform Americans about "preventive benefits provided by the healthcare law," Sam Baker reports on Healthwatch. Some see it as a politically biased ad campaign for legislation that remains widely unpopular. From the Washington Examiner:

President Obama is using your own money to propagandize you and your family, in an election year, in favor of the unpopular health care law that probably cost his party its majority control of Congress in the last election.

The marketing push came to public notice through an innocuous report on May 18 in PR Week that the firm Porter Novelli landed the multimillion-dollar account.  The article quotes an HHS representative as saying:

The campaign will inform the American people about the many preventive benefits now available to those with Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

What do you think of the $20 million contract to promote the benefits of the Affordable Care Act? We welcome your comments.

Source: "Porter picked by HHS to conduct $20m campaign," PR Week, May 18, 2012.

Source: "HHS signs $20M PR contract to promote healthcare law," Healthwatch: The Hill's Healthcare Blog, May 21, 2012.

Source: "HHS Signs $20M Public-Relations Contract to Bolster ObamaCare," The New American, May 23, 2012.

Source: "Examiner Editorial: No taxpayer money for Obamacare propaganda," Washington Examiner, May 23, 2012.

Image courtesy of Ashley Pollak used under its Creative Commons license.

Steve O'Keefe is a freelance writer, author and book editor.