The White House’s overtures to professional sports leagues have largely gone unheeded. Ravens to aid Obamacare enrollment

The NFL may have spiked the White House’s request for Obamacare PR help — but the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens just called an audible.

The team has signed onto efforts to market the health law to Marylanders, according to an announcement from Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and officials running the state’s Obamacare insurance exchange, known as Maryland Health Connection.


“Research shows that 71 percent of the uninsured population in Maryland have watched, attended or listened to a Ravens game in the past 12 months,” the announcement said. “The partnership will provide Maryland Health Connection with the opportunity to reach and engage fans while making them aware of the new opportunity they have for health coverage beginning this fall through the health insurance marketplace.”

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A Ravens spokesman said the team would reveal more details on Wednesday, after a conference call to discuss its role. According to the Maryland Health Connection, the team is expected to assist during a six-month enrollment period that begins on Oct. 1, a few weeks into the start of the NFL season. The partnership is intended “to connect with Maryland residents about the importance of developing a health coverage game plan. ”

In Maryland, the partnership with the Ravens is one facet of a broader enrollment effort, which also includes a social media campaign and partnerships with CVS and Giant Food. The stores will provide shoppers with information about coverage.

The White House’s overtures to professional sports leagues have largely gone unheeded, leaving it to individual teams and players to decide whether to partner with their states’ exchanges. The NFL was among the sports leagues that Republican lawmakers warned against participating in Obamacare outreach efforts, and the league responded by insisting it had no plans to do so.

“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 PPACA’s implementation,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told POLITICO in June.

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The NBA, too, has abstained from any public moves in support of Obamacare outreach. But that didn’t stop Minnesota Timberwolves forward Corey Brewer from acting as the “guest emcee” for the state’s insurance exchange at the Minnesota State Fair last month.

Efforts to solicit help from sports are modeled on a partnership that Massachusetts formed with the Red Sox in 2007, when the state conducted outreach in support of its own health reform law, a precursor to Obamacare. Supporters of such partnerships say teams are often viewed with nonpartisan reverence and particularly connect with the young, healthy people that the White House is hoping will sign up for coverage.