Just in time for Halloween, conservative group Generation Opportunity released a terrifying pair of video ads aimed to scare college students into opting out of Obamacare.
In the ads, a pretty, young woman — presumably a member of the national health care exchanges — visits a gynecologist. After changing into a gown and putting her feet into the examination table’s stirrups, a creepy Uncle Sam stylized to look like a giant circus clown pops up between her legs, grinning like Pennywise and slowly easing a metal speculum open.
Boys, don’t think you’re off the hook either: Another ad portrays a young guy curled up on an examination table in a doctor’s office, awaiting a prostate exam, when the same monstrous Uncle Sam rises from behind the table, snapping on a rubber glove.
Just like many of our other favorite horror movies, the Generation Opportunity ads are based purely on fiction.
Government-issued doctors won’t be giving you your next pelvic or prostate exam. According to The New York Times editorial blog, people who stay with Obamacare aren’t given access to government-run health care — just privately run insurance. And no one will be forced to undergo unwanted examinations, as purported by the ads.
“Signing up for an exchange isn’t an act of political (or sexual) submission,” Juliet Lapidos wrote in the blog post. “It’s just a way to get insurance if you don’t have a job or your employer doesn’t provide it.”
PolitiFact confirmed on Sept. 19 that doctors won’t be forced to ask intrusive questions about patients’ sex lives under the Affordable Care Act either, after a New York Post article claimed otherwise.
“[Obamacare] doesn’t require any ‘sex questions’ — except for whether you’re male or female. You might hear the words, ‘Are you sexually active?’ from your doctor, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with the health care law,” PolitiFact stated.
So Generation Opportunity, with its perfectly vague name and genuinely offensive meme-laden website, is perpetuating some serious lies about what Obamacare will entail for young people.
According to Yahoo News, Generation Opportunity is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into convincing college students to opt out of Obamacare, even though those who don’t sign up by 2014 will be required to pay either a $95 fine or 1 percent of their household income through the Internal Revenue Service.
The organization plans to travel to colleges around the country and encourage students to sign pledges to opt out of Obamacare by posting up at tailgates to hand out pizza and branded beer koozies.
Whether you take advantage of Obamacare or not is your choice, but Generation Opportunity’s scare tactics and lies are unacceptable.
Rest assured that a creepy Uncle Sam will not, as the ads would have you believe, be making a guest appearance at your next doctor’s visit.
A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 10/3/2013 under the headline "Playing dirty: Conservative groups release icky ads"
