Idaho Interest Group Uses Billboards to Fight Obamacare

"They didn't need to implement Obamacare". This phrase is printed on billboards near Burley, Idaho. An interest group known as the "'Idaho Freedom Foundation" is responsible for the implementation of these negative advertisements, as seen in this article. Their actions are in part an attempt to implicate  the District 27 legislators for inadvertently supporting Obamacare. Some believe this to be false advertising. They have chosen to incur the costs of  this negative advertising initiative as a means to achieve their group's objective, the repeal of the state insurance exchange expected to happen in 2014. They are hoping to influence voters to take a stand against Obamacare and the state insurance exchange program, using the billboards as a means to promote collective action. The president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, Wayne Hoffman, explains that "the foundation's intentions are threefold...to tell people that the legislators didn't have to pass 'Obamacare,' identify the legislators who voted for the state health insurance exchange and inform people that there will be a chance to repeal it next year."

We can better understand this scenario through Olson's theory of groups. The Idaho Freedom Foundation has been willing to incur the costs of this advertising because they are competing for collective good benefits that would follow if the state insurance exchange were to be successfully repealed. These collective benefits may not be preferred by everyone however, especially those who support the state insurance exchange. Furthermore, the efficient provision of this public good would be hampered by the free rider problem; if the state exchange program were successfully repealed, there would be many more "beneficiaries", or people who would have also preferred for the repeal of this state insurance exchange than those who actually contributed to the efforts of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. It would infeasible to impose costs on all the beneficiaries of their actions because the Idaho Freedom Foundation is seeking the provision of a public good.