September 19, 2013 12:05 PM UTC

Creepy Koch Ad Tells Young People To Go Uninsured

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• by: Colorado Pols

Chris Moody at Yahoo! News reports on what may be the most over-the-top anti-"Obamacare" ad ever made–and though we haven't seen them all, we're pretty sure that's saying a lot:

Generation Opportunity, a Virginia-based group that is part of a coalition of right-leaning organizations with financial ties to billionaire businessmen and political activists Charles and David Koch, will launch a six-figure campaign aimed at convincing young people to “opt-out” of the Obamacare exchanges. Later this month, the group will begin a tour of 20 college campuses, where they plan to set up shop alongside pro-Obamacare activists such as Enroll America that are working to sign people up for the insurance exchanges.

Generation Opportunity intends to host events at college football tailgate parties festivals, where “brand ambassadors” (read: hot young people) will pass out beer koozies that read “opt out,” pizza and literature about the health care law. Some events may have impromptu dance parties with DJ’s, complete with games of cornhole and competitions for prizes, organizers said.

Their message: You don’t have to sign up for Obamacare. And they want students to sign a pledge not get insurance plans set up by the law.

“What we’re trying to communicate is, 'No, you’re actually not required to buy health insurance,'” Generation Opportunity President Evan Feinberg told Yahoo News in an interview about the campaign. “You might have to pay a fine, but that’s going to be cheaper for you and better for you.” [Pols emphasis]

We haven't heard yet if any Colorado college campuses are being targeted by this group, but we wouldn't be a bit surprised to see them on the Boulder University of Colorado campus or elsewhere in our swing state. The insidious message here, that it's better for young people to go uninsured than buy heath insurance through an exchange established by "Obamacare," is of course a terrible recommendation public policy-wise. Before it became fashionable on the right to reject everything even remotely connected to President Barack Obama, an individual mandate to purchase health insurance was the recommendation of conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation–who realized that the system needed fixing by bringing young people into the insurance risk pool. To tell young people today they should be uninsured is probably the most effective thing the right can do to undermine health care reform, and the destructive side effects are acceptable in pursuit of that goal.

Fortunately, the only thing this ad will convince anyone of is that the people who made it have issues.