NFL won't partner with HHS to promote exchanges

The NFL won't be promoting the reform law, and the health insurance exchange in particular, even though the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reached out to the sports organization.

Although HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was having "active discussions" with several sports leagues, noting the NFL was "enthusiastically engaged," there won't be any football players appearing in ads supporting the exchanges.

The NFL's decision came only a few days after Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote to six professional sports associations, advising them not to promote the reform law or partner with HHS regarding any of the law's provisions, reported The Hill's Healthwatch.

"Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of the health care [law], it is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion," McConnell and Cornyn wrote the commissioners of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA and the chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR.

As a result, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Politico "we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about [the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's] implementation."

Additionally, spokespersons from the MLB and NHL said HHS has either canceled or postponed previously scheduled meetings, according to the Washington Post.

To learn more:
- read The Hill's Healthwatch article
- see the Politico article
- check out the Washington Post article