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Across Connecticut, you can see billboards and television ads, hear radio spots and get pamphlets, all about how to get insurance under the new federal health law starting Oct. 1. But the state also is spending big bucks on less traditional ways to get the word out.

So at beaches this summer, outreach workers handed out tubes of sunscreen that said, 鈥淕et Covered.鈥� The state is opening up Apple-like . And across Connecticut, outreach workers are going to like the America鈥檚 Most Wanted rap concert featuring superstars Lil Wayne and T.I.

Papilon Ferreiras went to that concert. He goes by Pap Haze, and he says he works about 35 hours a week at Taco Bell. He鈥檚 21 and says he鈥檇 like health insurance.

鈥淵eah. All day! Who wouldn鈥檛? Who wouldn鈥檛 like health insurance?鈥� he says.

This is where outreach worker Emanuela Cebert sees an opening. She walks up to Ferreiras, tablet computer in hand.

鈥淚f I had a way for you to get more affordable health insurance or health insurance in general, would you want to learn more about it?鈥� she asks.

鈥淚鈥檒l look into it. Not today. But I鈥檒l look into it,鈥� replies Ferreiras.

So Cebert tells him she can get his information and contact him in October, when Connecticut鈥檚 marketplace starts selling insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

is the executive director of , the state鈥檚 health insurance exchange. He鈥檚 got $15 million in federal money to spend on marketing.

鈥淭his is the biggest expansion of health insurance in 50 years,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty hard to communicate effectively without investing some. We invested in a lot of other programs in order to promote them.鈥�

Connecticut is one of and the District of Columbia setting up its own health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. And that means it has access to federal marketing money to reach the state鈥檚 uninsured. The outreach is staring now, even though you can鈥檛 officially sign up until Oct. 1 and coverage begins in January.

It鈥檚 not easy to do this outreach. Often people walk right by Cebert and her colleagues. But if the health insurance expansion is going to survive, the outreach is important. It鈥檚 about more than the numbers. It鈥檚 about demographics.

鈥淲e鈥檙e gonna be at Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, we鈥檙e going to be at the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, we鈥檙e going to be at John Mayer and Phillip Phillips,鈥� says Counihan, naming upcoming concerts.

鈥淚t has to be broad and comprehensive,鈥� he continues. 鈥淚f we narrowed this, say, to the Hartford Pops Festival, or the Hartford Jazz Festival, we will get a slim demographic which doesn鈥檛 adequately reflect our state.鈥�

A few weeks later, Counihan鈥檚 operation was at the Milford Oyster Festival, with a shucking competition. The goal was to reach an older, more suburban crowd.

Robert Harrington was there. He says he could get health insurance through his job, but he doesn鈥檛. It鈥檚 too expensive, and he makes a calculation.

鈥淎 hundred dollars a week. You know. Do I pay health insurance [or] do my kids eat?鈥� he asks.

Now, he doesn鈥檛 have much of a choice. He doesn鈥檛 like President Obama. And he doesn鈥檛 like Obamacare. But he doesn鈥檛 want to be penalized for being uninsured.

鈥淵ou know, I got to do what I got to do. I don鈥檛 want to get fined. Cause it鈥檚 a tax!鈥� he says.

And then there鈥檚 Gary Mott. He鈥檚 a tub refinisher with insurance, but he worries about his $10,000 deductible for the policy that covers him and his wife.

鈥淔or both of us all together, it鈥檚 about $450 (a month), so we鈥檙e good right now, as far as premiums go. But that deductible 鈥� if one or both of us gets sick, we鈥檙e in trouble. That鈥檚 how people end up losing their homes and such.鈥�

So Mott could be one of the people who finds an option in Connecticut鈥檚 marketplace. Exchange head Counihan says he鈥檚 hoping to enroll about 100,000 in the first year alone.

This piece is part of a collaboration that includes聽, , and Kaiser Health News.