Conservatives: Get ObamaCare and Uncle Sam will sexually assault you

I love the names that these groups make up. Generation Opportunity and Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity. How sad the lies and misinformation that conservatives have to spew to scare people into not taking advantage of health insurance. Why don't you guys tell the public that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in America? Yes, you too can have the freedom to go bankrupt! YES! FREEDOM!!!!!

Conservatives: Get ObamaCare and Uncle Sam will sexually assault you

http://news.yahoo.com/conservatives-obamacare-uncle-sam-sexually-assault-143000770.html


Has this ever happened to you? You're in the middle of a routine physical exam when suddenly a nightmarish vision of Uncle Sam emerges from nowhere and needlessly probes your butt.

That's the hyperbolic take on ObamaCare put forward in a conservative ad from Generation Opportunity, a group backed by the free-spending libertarian Koch brothers. Here's the video, along with another one aimed at women:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BsN75nt1aUU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R7cRsfW0Jv8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>The message in both is clear: ObamaCare will, more or less, rape you at the doctor's office.

Extreme? Certainly. (New York's Jonathan Chait calls it the "rape-clown argument.") However, the ads' underlying goal is not to save you from unwanted prostate exams, but rather to defeat the health care law by convincing the uninsured — and especially young adults — to "opt out" of ObamaCare.

Starting October 1, Americans can begin enrolling in health care exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. The exchanges are intended to enroll millions of uninsured Americans, creating a huge new pool of customers that will, in theory, force insurance companies to compete against each other and drive down prices for everyone.

The exchanges need to attract plenty of young, healthy Americans to help defray the costs of adding older, sicker people to the insurance pool. Young people tend to have lower insurance costs, which drives down premiums for everyone.

That's where the Uncle Sam ads come in. They're just the latest incarnation of an ongoing campaign by conservative groups to spook young people into staying uninsured, thus spoiling the exchange rollout and dooming ObamaCare.

The conservative group FreedomWorks launched a campaign this summer telling Americans, "Burn your ObamaCare card." Though there is actually no such card, the group aims to equate the health care law with the military draft.

"We're trying to make it socially acceptable to skip the exchange," FreedomWorks' Dean Clancy told Reuters.

Another anti-ObamaCare group, Americans For Prosperity, is spending upwards of $1 million on ads sowing confusion about the law and urging people to not enroll. One ad features a woman who, while fretting about her son's health problems, suggests the ACA will raise health care costs and prevent people from being able to choose their own doctors. (The latter claim is completely false, says FactCheck.org.)

Citizens for Healthcare Freedom even released a flier explicitly outlining the movement's goal.

"If not enough people enroll, the Exchanges will fail," the flier says. "If the Exchanges fail, ObamaCare fails."

With the exchanges about to kick in, more of this kind of messaging is on the way. Generation Opportunity's Burger King-esque Uncle Sam ads are just one part of a larger six-figure campaign that's just getting underway.

Here's Yahoo's Chris Moody:

Later this month, the group will begin a tour of 20 college campuses, where they plan to set up shop alongside pro-Obamacare activists such as Enroll America that are working to sign people up for the insurance exchanges.

Generation Opportunity intends to host events at college football tailgate parties festivals, where "brand ambassadors" (read: hot young people) will pass out beer koozies that read "opt out," pizza and literature about the health care law. Some events may have impromptu dance parties with DJ's, complete with games of cornhole and competitions for prizes, organizers said. [Yahoo]

 

Now it's about privacy? HOLY...

 

How has that problem manifested in Medicare and Medicaid? Do you have any evidence for anything? Comparing rates of corporate privacy issues to government? How about when a company finds out you have a particular illness and then fires you so you lose your health insurance? I actually receive phone calls from my insurance company trying to get me to check in with one of their nurses to "help" me with managing an illness. How's that for privacy?

Is this just another Republican red herring thrown out without any evidence to substantiate anything? This is the party that brought us the Patriot Act and the wiretaps in the first place so telling me you're concerned about my privacy now is pretty bizarre.

So what is the Republican Plan to replace Obamacare? If you get sick die quickly. If you rack up $300,000 in medical bills, take personal responsibility. Let's hear that plan.