If a new ad is to be believed, it's possible we were all wrong about Uncle Sam's gesture, that maybe he wasn't pointing at us to try to recruit us into the army, but to give us a medical exam.
The iconic symbol of the U.S. government appears in a strange video posted to YouTube Wednesday by Generation Opportunity, a right-wing group whose mission is to sway young people on issues such as student loan debt, Internet sales tax and healthcare.
The video features a young woman on a visit to the gynecologist. The nurse notes that the woman has attained insurance through the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health reform law colloquially known as "Obamacare." When the time comes to conduct the exam, however, the doctor instead leaves the room. We won't spoil the ending, but it pivots around the character Generation Opportunity is calling "Creepy Uncle Sam" and a very frightened patient.
The group also posted a similar video that features a young man visiting the doctor for a prostate exam. The videos, which encourage young people to opt out of Obamacare, sport text that reads, "don't let the government play doctor" and appears on screen at the end of each commercial.
While the videos posted to YouTube are more creepy than informative, Generation Opportunity President Evan Feinberg said that's the point — the group hopes to get people's attention with the videos and establish itself as a resource young people can use to explore their healthcare options.
"Right now there's a lot of confusion around the law," Feinberg told Mashable. "Millions of young Americans are going to hear the important educational message — that they have the ability to opt out of Obamacare — because of the reach that our message is going to have because of the creepiness of the video. Not to mention the fact that Obamacare is creepy, so it's important for people realize that," he opined.
Generation Opportunity plans to supplement the videos with usable information during a tour of college campuses starting later this month. The group has not yet released details of the tour.
The group describes itself as "a free-thinking, liberty-loving, national organization of young people promoting the best of being American: opportunity, creativity and freedom." It also receives substantial funding from the politically active billionaire businessmen David and Charles Koch.
"We're unabashed advocates for young people, and we're happy to work with people who support that mission and vision," Feinberg said when asked about his group's connection to the Koch brothers, whose political donations to right-wing causes far exceed $100 million.
In addition to trying to inform and persuade people about their options regarding the healthcare law according to the group's ideology, the videos also ask viewers to sign and share a petitiondeclaring their intentions to opt out. "Good news: you are not required to purchase health insurance through an Obamacare exchange! There are cheaper, better options for young people," reads the descriptions of the videos on YouTube.
Specifics about those better options are conspicuously absent from the videos and their descriptions. They also doesn't mention the potential penalties attached to opting out.
Last month, the IRS announced (.PDF) that the penalty for not obtaining insurance under the Affordable Care Act starts at $95 or 1% of household income in 2014, eventually increasing to $695 in 2016.
Generation Opportunity's videos don't suggest young people forego insurance all together, but they also don't offer any alternatives to the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, whose success, economists have argued, depends on everyone participating, especially the young and healthy.
What, if anything, do you think these videos add to the conversation about the Affordable Care Act? Let us know by commenting below.
Image: YouTube, MyGenOpportunity
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