Some technology companies in Silicon Valley, and especially Uber have started a new campaign promoting enrollment in Obamacare for their drivers. This comes after the Trump administration cut government spending by 90% on marketing Obamacare.
Uber is 100% reliant on its freelance independent contractors, or Uber drivers, and have also been at the forefront of arguing aghast Trump's controversial decisions regarding immigration laws and Obamacare. Uber's drive is aimed at supporting their drivers and becoming more popular with many of their immigrant workforce, although they claim this new drive is not a political act but rather a new initiative to improve driver satisfaction, such as adding in-app tipping and raising UberPool driver rates.
This Friday will see 28 cities hold Uber Obamacare drive events, all aimed at helping their drivers sign up through the Affordable Care Act, or what we know as Obamacare. Uber partnered with Stride Health, a health services consultancy venture that has developed a way to help independent workers choose their health, vision and dental insurance plans. Stride is working with other large independent contractor companies such as DoorDash, Postmates, and Etsy.
Uber has signed up over 600,000 drivers all over the US, in 49 states and DC and is constantly battling for changes in regulations that impede its operations and profitability. Travis Kalanick, the former CEO resigned from Trump's business advisory board after being under attack for joining it in the first place. Uber's New CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi has had to deal with a lot of issues and will continue to fight for Uber's survival implementing any legal incentive it can find to use. The drive for Obamacare is one such resource that Uber can use to improve its driver's conditions as well as improve Uber's image.
Republicans have supported Trump's initiative but have failed to repeal or replace it, while Democrats continue to support the act and state it will help millions of American citizens to reach healthcare coverage.
Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act enrollment will cease on December 15th, 2017 so it is imperative to get as many people signed up before this date. Another of Trump's actions was to reduce the advertising budget of the act to only $10 million and reduced staff by 40%. In some states there is no representation for the act and as such, Stride aims to fill in the gap and ensure that everyone gets a chance to enroll before the December deadline.
Uber's regional manager for the US and Canada stated that there were around 150,000 drivers in the US that wanted and needed Obamacare and applied for it over the last year. Now, it is Uber's intention to double the number of drivers that enroll for this act.