Calif. officials push campaigns informing public of health law's new provisions

Officials in California seek to inform the public of what the health care law does for insurance coverage and health care with a series of public campaigns.

Los Angeles Times: Alameda County Launches Nearly Nude Campaign For Health Care
To help implement President Obama's health care overhaul in California, officials around the state are rushing to raise awareness and enroll hundreds of thousands of Californians in Medi-Cal, the state's public insurance program. For its part, Alameda County has settled on a decidedly stripped-down message, launching an ad campaign this week that features scantily clad families holding strategically placed signs that read: "Cover Your Family" (Mishak, 1/17).

HealthyCal: Using The Affordable Care Act To Close The Health Gap
Young people may be less likely to suffer from severe health problems, but Tamika Butler wants them -- and the lawmakers who draft policies affecting them -- to remember they are not immune to illness and disease. Butler is just one of many advocates worried about how youth of all incomes levels and ethnicities are going to fare once the Affordable Care Act is implemented. She directs the California branch of the Young Invincibles, an organization dedicated to informing and advancing health care options for young adults aged 18 to 34. In California, 3.1 million people in that age group do not have insurance -- a pool that accounts for 42 percent of the entire uninsured population in the state (Bartos, 1/18).

In the meantime, Kansas business leaders talked to lawmakers about what negative consequences the law could have for them --

Kansas Health Institute: Business Groups Testify On Consequences Of Obamacare
Spokesmen for three business groups testified today before the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee about what state legislators might do -- as one put it -- to "mitigate the negative impact" of the federal health reform law on the Kansas economy. The short answer: Not much (Cauthon, 1/17).