Community Corner

Community Health Center Uses Miley Cyrus 'Twerking' to Coax Obamacare Buy

The Middletown-based primary care group hopes to win a competition offered by Health Justice CT that targets people of color in Connecticut to enroll in health care with provocative social media messages.

The Middletown-based Community Health Center is among a handful of Connecticut groups vying for $10,000 in cash prizes in a video competition that seeks to raise awareness of the state's new health insurance enrollment program among people of color.

Health Justice CT is offering a series of challenges to individuals and organizations that encourage an estimated 340,000 of Connecticut uninsured people to enroll in Obamacare. This latest call is one for videos that pique the interest of young people and spur them to explore the state's health care exchange.

The Community Health Center's entry, "We Know What You're Thinking," begins with Miley Cyrus' infamous MTV Awards appearance 'twerking" with Robin Thicke and shows females in the audience with a thought bubble that reads, "I Should Enroll in Obamacare."

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CHC has centers in 12 Connecticut cities and delivers services in 173 locations statewide (including Middletown High School, both of the city's middle schools and at Macdonough Elementary School). 

"Through the humorous fair use of brief segments of videos in popular culture, the CHC video says, this video mash-up makes the discussion around enrolling in health care fun and engaging."

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Other YouTube videos included are the "Girl Writes off Average Joe" comedic piece that pokes fun at young women being more attracted to slick men than boring guys and the Lady Speed Stick commercial that shows a nerdy fellow who tattooed his chest with his two-week-long girlfriend's face, all with the same "I Should Enroll in Obamacare" bubble.

Chief Executive Officer and CHC founder Mark Masselli said while their entry may not be entirely politically correct, he's received a lot of feedback and some votes.

The idea for a video mashup, said Aldon Hynes, social media manager for CHC, came from brainstorming between Masselli, Director of Communications Paul Mayer and videographer Dan Nocera.

"The predominant feedback I’ve seen is that people really like the video and they are going to use it in some of their own enrollment outreach efforts," Hynes said.

The health center, like dozens of agencies across Connecticut, have been reaching out to uninsured people since Access Health CT began Oct. 1 of last year through a variety of ways.

"CHC has been very involved in many aspects of enrollment," Hynes said. "We’ve sent letters to our uninsured patients, called them with robocalls, and called them with individualized calls. Our staff have helped people out over the phone, in personalized sessions to help with enrollment, and in enrollment fairs."  

They've even employed Wesleyan students in door-to-door outreach, and are using social media to spread the word as well as television news. 

Health Justice CT is taking entries through Jan. 31 and folks can vote for their favorite videos 

Current videos are from the Bristol Community Organization, two heartstring-pullers, a child playing basketball in “Change Your Game With the ACA!” BY Brianna Moody and "Illness Will Find You" by Kara Brewer which shows a woman with illness who still may be covered by Obamacare, and "Connecti-GET Covered" by Newton High School.

Videos will be accepted through March 31 and applicants will be judged on video message, social media and online engagement.

What do you think of Connecticut's version of Obamacare? Do you think a social media video campaign will work to encourage people of color to sign up?

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