{"id":2651,"date":"2014-03-10T21:30:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T02:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=2651"},"modified":"2014-03-10T21:31:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T02:31:33","slug":"chicago-stations-cash-in-to-sell-health-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/03\/10\/chicago-stations-cash-in-to-sell-health-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago stations cash in to sell health coverage at a premium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/itc558U8Rgk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Last Friday Chicago\u2019s top-rated morning news program cut short its final hour to air a 30-minute government-sponsored infomercial about health insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Viewers who tuned in to see <a href=\"http:\/\/morningnews.wgntv.com\" target=\"_blank\">\"WGN Morning News\"<\/a> at 9:30 a.m. were subjected instead to \"Get Covered Illinois: A Half Hour Special,\u201d part of a monthlong statewide enrollment campaign for the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered.png\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/03\/10\/chicago-stations-cash-in-to-sell-health-coverage\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2652\" alt=\"Get Covered\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered-300x155.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"155\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered-300x155.png 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered-150x77.png 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered-400x207.png 400w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered-200x103.png 200w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Get-Covered.png 675w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/a>Some of them weren\u2019t happy: \u201cI am so pissed off you gave up 30 minutes to advertise Obamacare,\u201d a fan wrote on the show\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WGNMorningNews\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook page.<\/a> \u201cDisappointed that you gave up the last \u00bd hour to the get covered illinois bullsh*t. Please never allow that to happen again. Very tacky infomercial, I switched the channel,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, every day for the last month, \u201cWGN Morning News\u201d announcer Mike Toomey has been doing live reads during the 9 a.m. hour promoting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthcare.gov\" target=\"_blank\">healthcare.gov<\/a> website.<\/p>\n<p>The Tribune-owned station has not been alone among local media outlets in cashing in. Some believe it comes close to crossing a line of objectivity. \u201cIt\u2019s fascinating to see such huge government money being pumped into TV stations for an unpopular government program \u2014 and local TV stations essentially promoting it,\u201d one skeptical insider said.<\/p>\n<p>Other stations' efforts included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Val Warner, host of ABC 7\u2019s \u201cWindy City Live,\u201d appeared in a public service announcement urging viewers to \u201cget the facts and get covered.\u201d Earlier in the week, Brian Gorman, director of field outreach for Get Covered Illinois, <a href=\"http:\/\/windycitylive.com\/episodes\/Get-Covered-Illinois\/9453925\" target=\"_blank\">appeared <\/a>as a guest on \u201cWindy City Live\u201d to explain the program and answer questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>CBS 2 hosted a Get Covered Illinois \u201cEnroll-a-Thon\u201d during local news time from 5 to 5:30 p.m. and from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Monday. Viewers were invited to call in to start the enrollment process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>NBC 5 and Telemundo hosted a half-hour \u201cNBC Health Care Forum\u201d at 6 p.m. Saturday with Get Covered Illinois leaders discussing health coverage programs and services, and key enrollment deadlines and opportunities for the uninsured.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Public service announcements also were recorded by Maury Povich, Pete Wentz, Stacey King, Arsenio Hall, Penelope Menchaca, Fernando \u201cEl Feroz\u201d Vargas, Jared Borgetti, Yuri Sardarov, Chris Stolte and Dave Eigenberg.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAs we get down to the wire for enrollment, it is critical that we reach uninsured residents and motivate them to take action to get covered before the March 31 deadline,\u201d Jennifer Koehler, executive director for Get Covered Illinois, said in a <a href=\"http:\/\/getcoveredillinois.gov\/get-covered-illinois-launches-month-long-enrollment-push-gci-week-road2coverage-mobile-tour-across-illinois\/\" target=\"_blank\">statement.<\/a> \u201cGet Covered Illinois is on the road and conducting outreach to increase awareness about health coverage and connect with uninsured residents in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Friday Chicago\u2019s top-rated morning news program cut short its final hour to air a 30-minute government-sponsored infomercial about health insurance. Viewers who tuned in to see \"WGN Morning News\" at 9:30 a.m. were subjected instead to \"Get Covered Illinois: A Half Hour Special,\u201d part of a monthlong statewide enrollment campaign for the Illinois Health... <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/03\/10\/chicago-stations-cash-in-to-sell-health-coverage\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&#8594;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2658,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions\/2658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}