Barack Obama Releases Self-Mocking Video Promoting ACA Insurance Enrollments Before Dec 15 Deadline

Former President Barack Obama is still very much committed to making the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) a functional and affordable resource for Americans who need health insurance.

On Monday, Obama released a short video clip reminding viewers that the deadline to sign up for 2019 insurance coverage is Friday, December 15th, and he did it in a self-effacing, quasi-humorous way.

No jump shots. No ferns. No memes. Not this time. I’m going to give it to you straight: If you need health insurance for 2019, the deadline to get covered is December 15. Go to https://t.co/ob1Ynoesod today and pass this on — you just might save a life. pic.twitter.com/8mHMsXGY0g

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 10, 2018

Obama’s ACA enrollment promotion comes amidst reports that the Trump administration has gutted the promotional budget for ObamaCare. Critics have claimed that discouraging sign-ups effectively lets ACA “die on the vine” as the policy works best when there are more healthy enrollees that help lower the costs for those in need.

Last week, the former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt, who led the team that repaired healthcare.gov after its problematic rollout,  tweeted out.

BREAKING: ACA enrollment down 10% so far with Trump marketing budget down 90%.

The good news: Most can get covered for $75/month no matter pre-existing conditions.

The problem: almost no one knows that after Dec 15 it will be too late to get covered.https://t.co/qMJsC3POpl

— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) November 29, 2018

The former president’s current campaign to sign people up for Obamacare mocks his own previous efforts to promote ACA enrollment, in which he appeared on Funny Or Die’s “Between Two Ferns” interview with Zach Galifianakis, and did other self-mocking promotional stunts to get attention for the politically controversial health care reform bill that bears his name.

The 2018 midterms showed that health care is a crucially important issue to tens of millions of Americans, and today’s video shows that Obama is among them.

Former presidents typically refrain from engaging in the promotion of policy after their time in office has ended, but seeing as this is an effort to get more people health insurance and lower premiums for all enrolled, it’s easy to understand why Obama is still committed to the promotion of a policy that bares his name.

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