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First ObamaCare Enrollee Did Not Enroll? Another Propaganda Tool The Free Patriot

by Allison Martinez

Why was a 21 year old college student shopping for health insurance? After all, under ObamaCare, he can stay on his parent's insurance for free until he is 26. Did he enroll or didn't he? Is he real, fake, or part of the campaign? Was he used as propaganda? New theories abound now about the first ObamaCare Enrollee.

On the opening day of ObamaCare, October 1, anyone who attempted to sign up was met with server crashes, delays, dead chat bots, busy phone lines, and even people who work for ObamaCare that didn't know how to use the software. By any stretch of the imagination was an Epic Fail.

The Obama Administration's Original Tweet

But amid the chaos, one person's boast stood out. It was Chad Henderson. He claimed he had signed up for Obamacare. The ObamaCare twitterfeed retweeted his tweet to the world as evidence that the program worked. He became a folk hero among the Obama Administration's followers as the first person to tweet that he was able to cross the cyber gauntlet into the promised land of affordable health care.

According to the Huffington Post, Chad's Twitter message was shared more than 70 times, including by the Twitter accounts for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Celia Muñoz.

How is it that such high ranking people would even be aware of the twitter account of a 21 year old college student in Georgia?

Perfect ObamaCare Poster Child

Chad became an instant celebrity with the mainstream lapdog media. A young man living in a red state was just too much for Team Obama to resist. He was the one demographic where ObamaCare polling shows the most resistance. They could attack the state of Georgia's failure to expand Medicaid and tout the promise of ObamaCare with a young and nice looking who was in the perfect demographic. He could pass as the "boy next door" and Enroll America made him an instant posterchild. As the Washington Post reported:

It was a little difficult to reach Henderson, mostly because so many other reporters wanted to talk to him. "I'm supposed to talk to the Chattanooga Times Free Press in a half hour," Henderson said. "And The Wall Street Journal is supposed to call."

Newspapers across the nation attempted to talk to Chad about his experiences. According to Chad, he had not had insurance for 14 years. His family dropped their insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield and they did qualify under Georgia's rules for Medicaid. Chad works part-time at a day care and goes to college at Chattanooga State University who lives across the state border in Flintstone, Ga.

Of course Chad was a local media sensation.Obamacare local. Not only did he claim to enroll, but he claimed to have found a really "sweet deal" on insurance. He claims he found a deal on an insurance plan for $175 a month. This is cheaper than the company's website claims. As Huffington Post is now reporting:

Chad maintains that he did look at options and prices and that the $175 monthly cost for himself is the amount he viewed on the website at the time. Reason reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, the company Chad told some reporters he chose, charges a 21-year-old non-smoker in his zip code $225 for the plan Chad says he selected; the company's website confirms that.

Apparently, Chad hasn't done much shopping. Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute the Blaze that Henderson could have received health insurance for as little as $44.72 on eHealthInsurance.com before Obamacare. And with Obamacare's community-rating price controls that take effect in 2014, Henderson's cheapest plan option on eHealthInsurance jumped up to $190.23.

"So it appears that Obamacare quadrupled Chad's premiums, and Enroll America thinks this is a success story," Cannon said.

The story just has too many holes. First, you have high ranking administration officials retweeting an obscure college student in Georgia. Then there is the question of a 21 year old shopping for something that he should have for free under the ObamaCare law, and could have found at a much lower cost before the ObamaCare law. Then there is the excessively sweet price deal. Of course, there is the demographic issue; Chad just happened to fall in the demographic that was least likely to participate in the program.

Campaign Contact

While his twitter feed is now set on private, many skeptics in the media industry did see Chad Henderson's twitter feed before it went private. He has ties to the Obama Care that are not "casual." Chad Henderson was an Obama Campaign volunteer in both 2007 and 2013. According to his Link Ed account, he was President of the Walker County Democrats.

Second, it seems that he was all too happy to promote his involvement with the President's agenda

Not Enrolled After All

However, it turns out that there be little substance to Chad's claims. Chad Henderson is a 21 year old college student. He is eligible to stay on his parent's insurance until he is 26 years old. It is unclear why he would be shopping for medical coverage when he would have free coverage through his parents for several more years. The issue of Chad Henderson's enrollment would really be a question to address to his parents.

Peter Suderman said, in an exclusive interview with Chad Henderson's father, with Reason. In that interview, Chad's father said they did not buy insurance on the exchange. They have not decided on a plan. Reason reports:

Bill Henderson told me that both he and his son were interested in getting coverage, but that he had not enrolled in any plan yet, and to his knowledge, neither had his son. He also said that when they do enroll, getting the most coverage for the least money would be the goal, and that he expects that he and his son will get coverage under the same plan.

Propaganda Tool

Chad Henderson has since been walking his story back. He admitted to Huffington Post that he did not actually enroll and may have misspoke himself on his twitter feed. Perhaps folks should look at stories with a more critical eye.

Perhaps the young man was not knowledgeable enough to tweet on a timely topic. Or perhaps he was simply seeking notoriety from a rather ordinary life. Other such figures, like Sandra Fluke, have served as propaganda tools for the administration, either wittingly or not. Thus we have another in a long line of media "tools" in the person of Chad Henderson.

Allison Martinez

Allison Martinez writes as the "Arctic Conservative" lives in northern Alaska. An economist by training, AC lives as an economic refugee on the edge of the country.

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First ObamaCare Enrollee Did Not Enroll? Another Propaganda Tool The Free Patriot
http://freepatriot.org/2013/10/05/first-obamacare-enrollee-enroll-another-propaganda-tool/

John Hames