Teens Used to Promote Obamacare by California Grant

Students in California are set to become "messengers" for Obamacare, and the Los Angeles school system may be using a state grant to do it.The grant was just one of $37 million in state grants announced in May by Covered California, the states health insurance exchange --$990,000 of it was awarded to The Los Angeles Unified School District.

The grant says it would be used for outreach calls to families and adult-student class presentations. The grant also has an objective: Teens trained to be messengers to family members.

A spokesman for the district also told the Heartland institute that teens will be part of a pilot program to see if they can be trained to deliver outreach and limited education to family and friends in and around their homes.

Teens will be educating adults that they already know (e.g., family or friends) and not other adults, the spokesman said.

The grant comes at a time of controversy in Congress over the Obama administrations other efforts to promote the Obamacare law, well in advance of the entire laws implementation. The administration had recently come into conflict from GOP congressmen for attempting to promote Obamacare through major sports groups like the NFL.

On Monday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters that the Obama administration was in discussions with the NFL and other sports groups.

"The NFL, for instance, in the conversations I've had, has been very actively and enthusiastically engaged because they see health promotion as one of the things that is good for them and good for the country," she said.

But the NFL said it has no plans to promote Obamacare whatsoever.

"We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about (the law's) implementation," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.

The White House had been reaching out to sports leagues and professional teams in hopes that they'd be able to encourage young men and women to sign up for health coverage in new online markets slated to begin open enrollment Oct. 1. Analysts have said the ability of online markets to attract younger beneficiaries will be the ultimate test of whether Obama's policy is a success or a failure.