I just returned from the Children’s Health Insurance Summit in Chicago where organizations that successfully applied for CHIPRA outreach and enrollment grants gathered to share ideas on how to better Connect Kids to Coverage.  I’ll have more to say about the summit in a future blog but I first have to fulfill my promise to an amazing advocate that I bumped into while at the summit.  Ann Bacharach of the Pennsylvania Law Project and National Covering Kids and Families Network asked me to share this PA CHIP video with you and I think it’s fantastic.  

So here’s my “Video Pick of the Week”:

While I was uploading this video, my teenage son (who had previously shown no interest in my blog) was suddenly intrigued as he saw me fiddling with what is usually his domain –  You Tube. At first I thought he was just being attentive since I had been away for a few days.  But after a mom-style interrogation, he said he thought the video was clever and well done. He quickly backed away when I asked him to like it with his You Tube account.  When pressed, he said it just wasn’t his thing.  He’s into far more “interesting” topics such as posting expertly edited videos of his Modern Warfare and Black Ops gaming videos perfectly synched to music (we’re talking “Dubstep” not Vivaldi soundtracks). 

While my non-scientific focus group of one (my 15 year-old son) confirmed that videos do indeed pique the interest of the under 18 demographic, the primary target audience is still the parents, who are the folks we need to reach to get the kids enrolled. By driving up traffic to the PA CHIP video, we can help draw more attention to efforts to enroll children in CHIP and Medicaid plans and emphasize the importance of keeping these programs strong. Please help by watching the video (and the others in the series) and hit the “like” button on You Tube, Facebook or the social media channel of your choice.  And you just might be surprised to find your children gathering to watch You Tube over your shoulder critiquing your choice of videos.