Michelle Slam Dunks

On the website, one of the background videos shows the first lady slam dunking a basketball on a child's set. Everybody smiles with that superior manner of cool people that understand what we do not. 
I do not know about you, but this email from the White House strikes me as desperate.....

Hey, everyone --

President Obama loves basketball -- he loves to play the game, and he loves to watch it at all levels.

And every March, just like millions of college hoops fans, he sits down to fill out his bracket. It's something of a ritual around here -- and in the years when Georgetown's been knocked out before the Sweet 16, the President couldn't wait to give me a hard time for picking them to advance.

But basketball isn't the only important thing happening this month: Open enrollment ends in just 14 days, and we need your help getting folks covered.

So as you're filling out your basketball bracket, we put together another bracket -- featuring the 16 "sweetest" reasons to get covered. And yes, for good measure those reasons come with animated GIFs of cute animals, because the Internet loves GIFs of cute animals (and why not?).

By helping to decide the winner, you'll also be spreading the word to millions of Americans about the importance of getting covered. Vote on your favorite reason -- and we'll tally up your votes all week.

March 31 is the last day to sign up for health insurance in 2014, and there are plenty of reasons to get covered:

Thanks to the health care law, women can't be charged more than men for the same care. And no one can deny you health care coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

Those are just a few reasons that more than 5 million Americans have already signed up for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Vote for your favorite reason:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ACABracket

Thanks,

Dan Pfeiffer

Senior Advisor

The White House

Here is the link to a video clip offered by the North Carolina men's basketball coach Roy Williams and the Connecticut women's basketball coach Gino Auriemma.
The sixteen suggested reasons are

1. Women can't be charged more than men. 
2. Birth control is free
3. Insurance companies are accountable to you
4. It will give your mom peace of mind
5. You only live once
6. You might qualify for free or low-cost coverage
7. You never know when you'll take a hard foul
8. Nobody's invincible

Who out there finds it ironic that the header calls you to vote for one of the sixteen "sweetest" reasons and there are only eight choices given. 
As to the eight offers of sweetness, I have this to say about those.

1. Women have greater annual medical expenses than man, and they live longer. So the ACA discriminates against single men. That is what government does.
2. Why should this be free? Because it is in the governments best interest? Because is is cheaper than government subsidized abortion?
3. Not really so much, though the point is well taken.  Insurance companies are accountable to the party who pays, for many that would mean the employer.  Under the ACA the payer becomes the government. Who do you trust more? I trust my employer more than the government. Employees have a quid pro quo type relationship with their employers, inefficient sure, but a relationship that reflects payment for work promised or completed.
4. That is what insurance does, but the government does better because they don't give a shit about the patient or the balance sheet.
5. True, but what does that have to do with the ACA.
6. The reason it was sold as a benefit but argued in the Supreme Court as a tax. It's a tax to provide a benefit that encourages dependence.
7. Basketball reference is one part of ACA I agree with,where is serves as gap insurance between employment positions.
8. See number 5, a true statement. A statement pointed at the same young adults that the government need to be enrolled, that way there income is increased to cover what the taxes cannot.  These twenty somethings have not been enrolling at the pace expected, perhaps they are smarter with their money than they are with their votes.

Feeble product we've got to pay for.