During your romantic Valentine’s Day dinner tonight, Get Covered Illinois doesn’t want you to hold hands, stroll beneath the stars or murmur sweet nothings into your lover’s ear.
Well, perhaps they do, but before you indulge in flights of passionate fancy, the state’s Obamacare managers are urging you to get down to the brass tacks of your date’s health insurance coverage.
“When it comes to pursuing a relationship, a new survey shows that for many Illinoisans, health insurance is an important factor,” Get Covered Illinois said in a statement Thursday. “More than two-thirds of those surveyed listed having health coverage as something they value when starting a relationship, more so than the other person owning the latest technology, owning a dog, or having a tattoo.”
We don’t know about you, but here at Insurance Business, nothing gets our hearts beating faster than our lover’s ill-thought out “YOLO” tattoo, so we can only imagine how twitterpated we’d be quizzing our date on deductibles, premium payments and network providers on the most romantic night of the year.
Get Covered Illinois even suggested health insurance is the "number two turn on" for lovers, behind keeping up with current events.
And, true to gender stereotypical form, the organization announced that women are on the hunt for a man with a solid health insurance plan, with 55% of women surveyed ranking health insurance as a four or a five on a five-point scale of major considerations when starting a relationship.
Despite the state’s rather bizarre promotion, health insurance enrollment numbers are actually on target this year. 1.1mn Americans signed up for health plans through HealthCare.gov and other state-based marketplaces in January, the Health and Human Services Department announced this week, making for a total 3.3mn Americans with new health insurance plans since the exchanges opened in October.
The January numbers represent the first time the federal and state exchanges beat signup expectations, which were forecast at 1mn, according to a Washington Post report.
Regardless, if you choose to pop the health insurance question tonight, please let us know how it goes.
