24 million Americans enter every March Madness pool in hopes of affording healthcare in future

CHICAGO, IL—In the wake of a recent Congressional Budget Office report that nearly 24 million Americans will be without insurance under the GOP's new healthcare proposal, ESPN is reporting that their March Madness pools are doing great.

"We're seeing so many people fill out brackets in hopes of winning and being able to pay for their basic health needs," explains ESPN's pool entrant counter Collin Sideris. "It's really awesome for the sport."

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ESPN has been holding its Tournament Challenge for 20 years and generally sees an uptick in entrants whenever there's a government interested in minimizing its intervention in things like ensuring its citizens don't die.

One conspiracy theory that's currently making the rounds on the internet is that Republicans are just huge college basketball fans, interested in seeing everyone simply have a good time and not worry about big health issues that may arise. 

32-year-old Andrew Harris is one of the eager Tournament Challenge entrants. Harris has spent the time in between his two jobs researching stats to fill out his bracket.

"Sometimes you live in a country that views healthcare as a basic right," explains Harris. "Other times, you put all of your hope in exploited student athletes so you can afford to go to the doctor. It's kind of fun."

Some loyal fans are even filling out two brackets. The first is one where their favourite schools win it all. The second is a more likely bracket, coined the "My Daughter Needs Her Medication" bracket. 

While many generally enter these pools for bragging rights, the heightened stakes of literal life and death have added an exciting new element to this year's field. 

According to one mathematician, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, with the odds of finding an elected official who cares for its citizens coming in slightly worse than that.

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