WASHINGTON — The president has made himself ObamaCare’s top salesman — but the feds are also paying well over $200 million to get other people to proselytize for the program.
The Health and Human Services Department has doled out $150 million in grants to community health centers for “raising awareness of insurance options and providing eligibility and enrollment assistance” to the uninsured.
Separately, the feds have awarded $67 million to “navigators,” who are tasked with getting people to understand and enroll in the new system in states that opted not to set up their own health exchanges. They include hospitals, charities and nonprofits.
States that did set up their own exchanges, where health plans get offered, applied for and received grants to encourage people to sign up.
New York state got a federal grant worth $40 million to promote enrollment. Maryland got $24 million.
Sixteen states and DC set up their own exchanges. The remaining 34 states that didn’t can have people join a federal exchange.
There have been other, smaller federal efforts. Last May, the HHS linked a $20 million contract with the p.r. firm Porter Novelli to promote ObamaCare.
Kantar Media estimates more than $500 million has been spent on ObamaCare political ads since 2010, with anti-ObamaCare ads holding a 4-to-1 advantage.