The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday said it has partnered with shopping centers, pharmacists and websites to help promote Obamacare during the busy shopping weekend.
HHS said Westfield Shopping Centers, National Community Pharmacists Association and the XO Group will help promote Obamacare to people over the weekend. Black Friday is usually one of the biggest shopping days in the country, and it's followed up by "Small Business Saturday," and then "Cyber Monday."
Health and Human Service Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced partnerships that she hopes will help sell Obamacare policies to people over the long Thanksgiving weekend. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
HHS's partnership means people will have a chance to learn more about, and possibly sign up for, Obamacare as they shop at the mall, in community pharmacies and online.
"We are thrilled to announce partnerships today with three organizations that reach consumers across the country, especially on the busiest shopping weekend of the year," said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
Westfield has 40 shopping centers, and they will provide tables and chairs where Obamacare navigators will sit and help people buy a plan. XO Group helps connect people to information about weddings and pregnancy, and the group said it's "honored" to help direct people to health insurance.
Obamacare began its second round of enrollments this month. Earlier in the day, Burwell tweeted that 462,000 people have selected healthcare plans in the first week of the new enrollment period, which lasts through mid-February:
Earlier this month, Burwell said her department estimates that about 9.1 million people should be covered by an Obamacare plan by 2015, and that 7.1 million people in total were covered in the first year. Her estimate for 2015 was about 4 million fewer than what the Congressional Budget Office expected.
