--- title: Obamacare: NCAA March Madness Selection Sunday is Latest Sales Pitch description: The Obama administration is using the NCAA tournament to help sell its health care reform law canonical: https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-16T20:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:47:41.290Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obamacare: NCAA March Madness Selection Sunday is Latest Sales Pitch og:description: The Obama administration is using the NCAA tournament to help sell its health care reform law og:url: https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318391a341e07669/698685b306f2c1364c32de53/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: President Obama And First Lady Speak at Miami High School og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obamacare: NCAA March Madness Selection Sunday is Latest Sales Pitch twitter:description: The Obama administration is using the NCAA tournament to help sell its health care reform law twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318391a341e07669/698685b306f2c1364c32de53/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Embraces March Madness To Sell Obamacare > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 16, 2014 8:00 PM UTC  MIAMI, FL - MARCH 07: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the quality of education at Coral Reef High School on March 7, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Larry Marano/WireImage) MIAMI, FL - MARCH 07: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the quality of education at Coral Reef High School on March 7, 2014 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Larry Marano/WireImage) Larry Marano—WireImage/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Mar 16, 2014 8:00 PM UTC The Obama administration is getting a case of March Madnesss for its latest effort to reach young and healthy consumers who have been slow to sign up for insurance under the new health care reform law, two weeks before a critical enrollment deadline. The administration has marshaled athletes, coaches, and sports celebrities to help sell the law to the so-called “young invincibles,” whose participation is vital to the success of the insurance marketplaces, according to a White House official who described the blitz. Just 25 percent of enrollees are aged 18-35, well below the administration’s target. The field of teams in the college basketball tournament was set to be chosen on Sunday, also known as “Selection Sunday.” On Monday, the White House will release a “16 Sweetest Reasons to Get Covered” bracket listing the top reasons to get health insurance, along with a new web video featuring top college basketball coaches. The bracket will be updated all week to reflect the results of an online survey. The bracket is timed to coincide with the release of President Barack Obama’s selections for his own NCAA tournament bracket on Wednesday, the White House official said. Additionally, ads paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services featuring LeBron James, Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning will air during March Madness games and on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBAtv, while the agency is targeting digital ads to basketball supporters. Administration officials including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer have called into sports radio stations across the country to promote insurance enrollment. The effort follows Obama’s appearance in a Funny Or Die Web video, “Between Two Ferns,” as well as a call-in to Ryan Seacrest’s radio show. Last week the administration announced that 4.2 million Americans have enrolled in coverage through federal and state health care exchanges, well below the initial seven million projection and the revised six million projection from the Congressional Budget Office. The White House has said that the final weeks of the enrollment period are when they expect to see a surge in enrollment, particularly among young people, to avoid the law’s tax penalty for not having coverage. _More from a White House official on the latest enrollment push:_ --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/"},"headline":"White House Embraces March Madness To Sell Obamacare","datePublished":"2014-03-16T20:00:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:47:41.290Z","description":"The Obama administration is banking on the popularity of the NCAA men's basketball tournament to sell the Affordable Care Act to young Americans by using athletes, coaches and sports celebrities to encourage more youth to sign up","url":"https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/","keywords":["Health Care","Obamacare","White House","March Madness"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318391a341e07669/698685b306f2c1364c32de53/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt318391a341e07669/698685b306f2c1364c32de53/obama1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama And First Lady Speak at Miami High School","caption":"President Obama And First Lady Speak at Miami High School","creditText":"Larry Marano—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/26561/march-madness-selection-sunday-obamacare/","name":"White House Embraces March Madness To Sell Obamacare"}}]}] ```