Morning Must-Read: Richard Mayhew: Any Publicity Is Good Publicity

Richard Mayhew: Any publicity is good publicity: “‘After controlling for other state characteristics…

…I observe a positive association between the anti-ACA spending and ACA enrollment… anti-ACA ads may unintentionally increase the public awareness about the existence of a governmentally subsidized service and its benefits for the uninsured.

I think this is a case of trying not to think about the elephant after being told about the elephant.  People in states that were getting Koch bombed, knew about the Exchanges, knew they existed and could do something about that, while people in states where the Kochs weren’t trying to block access to affordable, subsidized private market health insurance (doesn’t that sound absurd when it is put that way), awareness was lower as they were never told to not think about the elephant.