In their increasingly desperate push to encourage the young and the healthy to sign up for health insurance that’s probably way more comprehensive and more expensive than anything they actually want or need — a scheme into which they have so far rather stubbornly refused to buy in the necessary numbers — the White House is pressing the timely popularity of March Madness into service for the cause. There are exactly two weeks left before the March 31st enrollment deadline, and the administration is really banking on young people having procrastinated on signing up en masse; ergo, via Politico:

With the arrival of college basketball’s March Madness, the White House is looking to capitalize on the annual tournament to encourage Americans to enroll in Obamacare.

The promotional effort will include athletes and coaches as well as administration officials, according to a White House official, and will begin on Monday. Sunday was “Selection Sunday,” the day the teams in the tournament are announced and the schedule and bracket are released.

The White House plans to release its own bracket Monday as part of the effort, “16 Sweetest Reasons to Get Covered,” timed with the annual release of President Barack Obama’s bracket this week, and the president and high-ranking administration officials will conduct interviews on a variety of outlets coordinated with the push, which will also include social media. …

The White House’s list of “sweet” reasons that young people should sign up for ObamaCare include persuasive items like “birth control is free,” “insurance companies can’t discriminate,” “it will give your mom peace of mind,” and “you only live once” — but nowhere is it mentioned that “insurance companies cannot discriminate” really just means that young people are getting lumped into vastly more expensive, redistributive risk pools that require them to pay more for coverage than they really need to be.

Sidebar: Cover photo courtesy of the Virginia Cavaliers and their total domination for the ACC title and a No. 1 seed! WAHOOWA! WAHOOWA!