The latest marketing strategy comes after a troubled two months for the national overhaul sign-ups have missed targets and the disastrous launch of the federal government's website was blamed for discouraging enrollments.
Fears that health insurance exchanges wouldn't attract the young, healthy people needed to make them financially viable are being heightened by the early results of signups in several states.
Nationwide spending on publicity, marketing and advertising to promote the health overhaul could hit at least $684 million, according to data compiled The Associated Press from federal and state sources.
Two lawmakers are pushing legislation to strip broad secrecy provisions from the state agency overseeing health care reforms in California that could shield from the public how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent, officials said Monday.
A California law that created an agency to oversee national health care reforms granted it broad authority to conceal spending on the contractors that will perform most of its functions, potentially shielding the public from seeing how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent.