Poll: Bad press is increasing interest in Obamacare

[geek tragedy]

Source: CBS News


A survey released Monday by Bankrate.com shows awareness and interest in the plan is growing among key demographics. The poll found 51 percent of all those surveyed -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- say the House Republican attacks and troubled launch of the Obamacare website have made them more interested in the new medical insurance plan. Only 4 percent say they're less interested.

...


Interest in the plan is especially high among younger people who are needed to make the plan's economics work. Nearly 60 percent of so-called "young invincibles" age 18 to 29 said they wanted to know more about the ACA. Because people this age use less healthcare than other groups, their insurance payments help subsidize the healthcare costs of others.

All the media attention also seems to have made up for what has been considered a lackluster effort by the government to make people aware of the ACA. Around 64 percent of the uninsured said they were now curious about it, the highest rate of any group in the survey.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57609593/poll-bad-press-is-increasing-interest-in-obamacare/

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[Jack Rabbit]

1. Could this be a case of there's no such thing as bad publicity?

There is such a thing as bad publicity. If Ted Cruz had a brain, he'd know that by now.

[geek tragedy]

3. Especially when it comes to websites.

Goddamn it I'm close to loving Ted Cruz.

He's our useful idiot.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. The reason Cruz doesn't have a brain is because he's a marionette

. . . like the rest of the Tea Party, he can't do anything the puppet masters, Dave and Charlie Koch, don't make him do.

Fred Koch (1900-1967), the patriarch of the Koch family, was a founding member of the John Birch Society, famous for allowing its membership to pontificate on General Eisenhower's patriotism (Robert Welch, another founding member of the JBS, called Ike a Communist) and the virtues of the fluoridation of drinking water (which many members claimed was a Communist plot). Like today's Tea Party, the JBS was the laughing stock of America, at least those Americans this side of Attila the Hun.

[harun]

23. I think it is a case of "If the rich corporate media is against it, it is probably good for me"

[Berlum]

2. Tee hee

Pathetic RepubliBaggers whining and simpering while the world goes on and on, making progress despite their best efforts to screw over America.

[liberal N proud]

4. Will the GOP and their lapdog media stop talking about it suddenly?

[geek tragedy]

6. Aww hell no. They're still talking about a second government shutdown over the ACA nt

[unblock]

5. let me tell you a story about ll bean, back when i worked at bell labs:

back when i worked at bell labs in the early '90s, there was a story about ll bean. this is a clothing store based on maine, but it was developing an national presence as a quality discount shop.

stores across the country were clamoring to get a whiz-bang bell labs phone system to handle their incoming calls. this was back in the early days of "phone trees" -- the now-ubiquitous machine that picks up your call when you dial a company and immediately puts you on hold, awaiting the next available representative.

turns out there's a fair amount of optimization needed to make these things work properly, both technically (installing and setting up the dang thing) and operationally (staffing and using the dang thing). most companies want, up to the point where it stops being economically feasible, to minimize that hold time.

hold time generally leads to pissed off customers who either yell at you when you finally do get to their call if they don't hang up before then. in any event, generally bad for business.


ll bean went a different route.

rather than set things up to *minimize* hold times, they actually set things up to enforce a *longer-than-necessary* hold time. sometimes significantly. in fact, they wanted *never* to have anyone get through in the first minute, even if their representatives were idle. they wanted average wait time to be something like 3 to 5 minutes, even, as i said, if it could easily be lower.


why on earth would they want to do that?

well, the idea was that they wanted everyone to think they were still a little mom and pop shop, struggling to keep up with the overwhelming demand. a high-tech variant of one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book, try to make it appear that your product is a rarity and that you're lucky to be one of the few who get the chance to buy. having a representative pick up too soon would cost them that carefully contrived cachet.



obamacare seems to be benefitting (inadvertently) from the same phenomenon. i think people are hearing about how hard it is to get through and actually get insurance through the website. this seems to actually be having the effect of making people think the problems are due to high demand, that this is a desirable product that too many people want, and that in turn is making people more likely to do the leg work to look into it and shop for it and eventually buy it.

[geek tragedy]

7. And, in this case, people want to see for themselves.

The more people here about something, the more they'll want to check it out. No matter how bad the word of mouth is.

Ask the people selling Miley Cyrus albums/songs.

[unblock]

15. in politics, the saying is, "no such thing as bad press"

aka, "just spell my name right!"

[monmouth3]

14. Haha, I worked at Bell Labs in the early '60s in Holmdel. Exciting times, I worked for the

engineers who were working on some "Star" project (I forget the name but it was significant). They would wear bermuda shorts and sandals in the winter/snow. I thought that was very interesting...LOL. Great place to work..

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. LOL Just visiting the place dispels the "Mom & Pop shop" myth. My family circled the parking

lot for 45 minutes just to find a spot!

[IronLionZion]

18. I sure hope so. There is so much pure bullshit coming from the right

trying to scare people from even entering their info to see the prices. Dems are the ones encouraging people to see it for themselves before making any judgements.

The one thing that is definitely happening is that the people who need it the most are patiently going through the process to get it first. We need to encourage the other folks to check it out too.

[Tarheel_Dem]

9. K&R

[get the red out]

10. Love it!

I guess they think like I do sometimes, if so many people are trying to get into that web site that it crashes, there must be something good to see there!

[libdem4life]

11. Guess all those Americans that are "hurting" from Obamacare decided to find out why they are hurting

and found out that there is hope. Even the young...lots of accidents and injuries and pre-post-natal...very important.

I would imagine that the parents of the young millenials...I know I have...made sure they got covered.

[vinny9698]

12. Word of mouth is going to help.

Once people sign up, they are going to share their stories with their friends and relatives.

[JoePhilly]

13. "Ha Ha" was my immediate first thought.

[Rozlee]

16. Hoisted by their own petards.

Poor dears. You'd think they'd run out of ammo for their circular firing squad.

[Rain Mcloud]

19. I think they are coming around

to the point of view that;if the republicans hate it then it must be GREAT!
If the republicans love something then it must suck.

[Tx4obama]

20. And we can thank the GOP for nicknaming The ACA: ObamaCare

I think it is awesome that in the future (after all the glitches are worked out and there are some good fixes added to the program) folks will still be calling it ObamaCare

[Scurrilous]

21. K & R

[Grateful for Hope]

22. LOL!

An excellent example of unintended consequences.

[Scurrilous]

24. Boink.

[arely staircase]

25. I saw it coming

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023939025