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March Madness: White House uses cat GIFs to promote health care

Are you ready for March Madness?No, not the college basketball tournament. The final rush toward the March 31 deadline to sign up for health insurance through Healthcare.gov.Those who don’t have an exemption and don't sign up by the deadline could get hit by a tax penalty next year, either $95 or 1 percent of their income. The White House needs young, healthy people to sign up to counteract the
White House Affordable Care Act bracket
Whitehouse.gov

Are you ready for March Madness?

No, not the college basketball tournament. The final rush toward the March 31 deadline to sign up for health insurance through Healthcare.gov.

Those who don’t have an exemption and don't sign up by the deadline could get hit by a tax penalty next year, either $95 or 1 percent of their income. The White House needs young, healthy people to sign up to counteract the cost of older, sick people claiming benefits. 

Hence, the White House is trying to convince the youths of America that signing up for health care is awesome, baby! On Monday, it unveiled the Affordable Care Act (ACA) bracket, which matches up 16 (Sweet 16, get it?) reasons to get covered along with their respective GIFs.

For example, “Because accidents happen” is paired with a GIF of a young lady twerking.

Twerk GIF
Today

The White House also lists, “It will give your mom peace of mind,” represented here by a cat, who is presumably not worried about her kittens breaking a leg while doing catnip stands at a frat party. 

Cat White House
Today

Also, “You Only Live Once,” because YOLO, right? (Drake, as a Canadian and a rich person, probably does not need to worry about looking for insurance through Healthcare.gov.)

YOLO White House
Today

President Barack Obama is totes not worried, because 5 million people have signed up for insurance through Healthcare.gov so far, which is enough that he is “confident the program will be stable,” he told WebMD last week. But just in case, he recruited legendary basketball coaches Roy Williams and Geno Auriemma (of the University of North Carolina men's program and University of Connecticut women's program, respectively) to star in a promotional video.