President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spent their week pushing Obamacare — but most of the country probably didn’t notice.
The final month of the White House enrollment campaign isn’t about daily events in Washington or speeches aimed at a national audience. Instead, Obama, Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, cabinet members and senior administration officials are showering attention in very targeted ways on African Americans, Latinos, young people and the top 25 cities with the most uninsured Americans.
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They’re hitting The View and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. But what’s less noticed is how they’re popping up on syndicated radio shows, at local enrollment events and on social media networks, hawking health insurance like product pitchmen.
(POLITICO's full Obamacare coverage)
In the last week, Obama spoke with the radio hosts Erazno y la Chokolata and Russ Parr. Biden hosted four conference calls. Even White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, who rarely sits for interviews, appeared on two sports stations.
The push is the last major test of the White House’s enrollment strategy, a marriage of analytics, microtargeting and messaging that suffered a serious setback after the health care website failed to launch in October — leaving the administration with a lot of ground to make up in the next month to boost the overall enrollment numbers, and the mix of young and old who are signing up.
More than 4 million have selected private health care plans through February — a larger figure than seemed possible when only several hundred thousand people had signed up in the opening weeks, but still a long way from the initial target of 7 million during the six-month enrollment period.
(WATCH: Ted Cruz: No shelf life for Obamacare slams)
“Folks only have about five weeks left,” Obama said on the Russ Parr Morning Show, urging people to sign up on HealthCare.gov or call a toll-free number. “Don’t believe all the misinformation that’s out there because that is all politics and that is all directed toward me coming from the other side. Check for yourself whether this makes sense.”
The White House effort escalated in recent week and will intensify through the March 31 deadline, with Obama and top administration officials dipping repeatedly into key communities to urge the insured to sign up for coverage, aides said this week.
It’s one layer of a campaign that goes well beyond the West Wing.
“In the final push, we’ll be ramping up efforts to reach the uninsured directly where they are,” said White House health care strategist Tara McGuinness, “in their communities, on the radio stations they listen to, the programs they watch, the websites they read, through their family members and people in their community who know them and want them to get covered, and by encouraging celebrities and athletes to get the word out.”
(Also on POLITICO: Hillary Clinton defends Obamacare)
Sports industry executives and athletes, including Kobe Bryant, are trying to drive traffic to HealthCare.gov through a campaign launched in February called GamePlan4Me. Groups like Enroll America and Organizing for Action, both with strong White House ties, and smaller local organizations are doing outreach and enrollment assistance. Insurance companies are running ads and hosting events in key states.
Mack Wilds, an actor on HBO’s The Wire, and comedian Wayne Brady used a skit during last week’s BET Honors to remind young African Americans to sign up for Obamacare.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius traveled to six cities in February, while Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan each hit up Las Vegas. And in the last week alone, Sebelius, cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials conducted almost two dozen interviews with radio talk show hosts.
But few can earn free media attention like the Obamas.
White House aides began deploying the first couple weeks ahead of the deadline because they hope to minimize a last-minute crush to sign up, even though many people are still expected to wait until the end. The Obamas have focused mostly on radio interviews that are heard in key markets and draw African-American and Latino listeners.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama: OFA volunteers doing ‘God’s work’)
The president and first lady generally get about six to ten minutes with each radio hit to promote Obamacare, usually with few interruptions.
Obama plugged the toll-free number, 1-800-318-2596, no less than four times during his appearance on the afternoon-drive show, Erazno y La Chokolata. He encouraged citizens and legal residents to enroll even if they had a family member who isn’t documented.
“Sometimes people worry that by signing up they will be inviting some sort of investigation,” the president said. “That is not how this works. This all about making sure people get health care and take advantage of it.”
(Also on POLITICO: Full health care policy coverage)
Michelle Obama needles young people during her appearances, whether it’s on the Tonight Show or The Doug Banks Show, which she said she used to listen to back in Chicago.
“In addition to our old folks who don’t want to go to the doctor, young people think they’re invincible,” Michelle Obama said. “The fact of the matter is the young lady who is still wearing the heels in the snow, who is going to slip and crack her behind on a patch of ice, is going to need insurance.”
And McDonough blocked off a few minutes Thursday to banter about sports and health care on the Greg Pogue and Big Joe Show in Nashville.
The White House chief of staff, a former college football player, talked GamePlan4Me, the athletes who explain why insurance is so important — and how he wishes he could face down his Washington foes on the field.
“There’s not a day that I wake up where I don’t wish I were out playing football, I tell you that,” McDonough said. “Everyday I walk into the (White House) and think to myself: Holy mackerel, this is quite a thing to be here. I’ll tell you, there are some days when I wish I had elbow and shoulder pads on and I could go out and take a couple of hits, if you know what I mean.”
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