On March 2, President of the United States Barack Obama met with several well known YouTube personalities at a White House summit. Among those in attendance were Hannah Hart, known for the Drunk Kitchen series, Michael Stephens, creator of the educational “Vsauce” channel, and Peter Shuckoff and Lloyd Ahlquist, creators of the Epic Rap Battles of History series, as well as many more.
The topic of the summit was the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as “Obamacare”, the universal healthcare insurance bill that the Democrats and the Obama administration have been championing, which is naturally being opposed by the Republican Party. Obama met with these personalities to thank them for the work they have already done to encourage enrolment in the Act, and also to encourage them to continue to promote it. As of right now, the Act has not quite met the expectations. The Obama Administration has expected a total of seven million Americans to sign up for insurance under the Act, with about 40% of those being between the ages of 18 and 34. So far only about 25% of those that have enrolled have fit into that demographic, and there are suspicions that the Act will not cover the projected seven million people by the March 31 deadline.
Healthcare reform has been a major issue since Obama was first elected in 2008. The Obama Administration fought a long, gruelling battle against not only the Republicans, but even some of their own party members. Eventually, after much arguing and compromising, the Act was finally passed in 2010, and has been the first major healthcare reform made since the original implementation of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965. While the act was first passed in 2010, it took several years for it to get off the ground and be properly implemented. It also faced additional challenges after being passed. For example, in October of last year, the government launched healthcare.gov to make it easier to find affordable healthcare insurance in most states and to incentivize participation under Obamacare. However the site crashed on launch, and continued to suffer problems during its first month of operation. With the deadline for registration for 2014 getting close, the government is doing everything it can to encourage people to sign up for insurance. This includes using both traditional and internet celebrities in ad campaigns, which has had some success.
This summit is just further proof of the increasing role that the internet plays in our lives. We spend a large amount of time doing various things on the internet, such as going on social networks, playing games or just surfing. The amount of information that is available to anyone with an internet connection is staggering. Companies and institutions are starting to adapt to the large role that the internet plays and the United States government valuing internet personalities so highly is an example of that. This very action of adapting is more evidence that the World Wide Web is here to stay, and we are only just beginning to explore the possibilities that it entails.
Leave a Reply