HHS To Launch National Ad Campaign Encouraging Health Plan Enrollment
The advertisements will stress that affordable options are available on the health law's marketplace plans. Also, news outlets look at other strategies to get the long-time uninsured to sign up for coverage and explore why consumers are hesitant.
The New York Times:
Obama Administration Campaign Will Publicize Health Care Subsidies
The Obama administration on Thursday said that it would wage a national advertising campaign to counter a perception among people with low incomes that health insurance under the Affordable Care Act was not affordable. (Pear, 10/29)
USA Today:
Feds Unveil New Obamacare Ads That Target Low Income Consumers
Federal health officials are targeting low-income consumers with new advertisements unveiled Thursday that emphasize the affordability of health insurance, two days after new data showed the average increase in premiums was higher than for 2015 plans. In a meeting with reporters, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell emphasized that about 80% of consumers shopping on the federal Healthcare.gov exchange that serves 38 states are eligible for tax credits that lower their premiums to less than $100 a month. (O'Donnell, 10/29)
The Washington Post:
Third ACA Enrollment Begins With New Ads And Modest Expectations
The insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to open for a third sign-up season Sunday, with the Obama administration setting modest enrollment expectations and focusing its energies on a niche of people who remain uninsured. The impending open-enrollment will be devoid of the movie stars and basketball heroes who served as White House megaphones two years ago, when the online marketplaces debuted. (Goldstein, 10/29)
Kaiser Health News:
Exchanges Face Sign-Up Challenges As Health Law’s 3rd Open Enrollment Begins
On fishing piers in Maine, inside public libraries in rural Iowa and at insurer-run retail stores in Minnesota, the hunt for uninsured Americans will reignite Sunday when Obamacare’s third open enrollment season starts. But the job will be more difficult this time as the number of uninsured Americans has fallen dramatically. (Galewitz, 10/30)
NPR:
Obamacare Deploys New Apps, Allies To Convince The Uninsured
Ten million people still don't have health insurance two years after the Affordable Care Act went into effect. Some never bought a policy. But 20 percent went to the trouble of signing up on HealthCare.gov, or one of the state insurance exchanges, and even made payments. Then, those 2 million people let their insurance lapse. NPR asked visitors to our Facebook page to tell us why. (Kodjak, 10/30)
Insurance companies still see a good market in the health law exchanges.
The Associated Press:
Big Insurers Remain Upbeat On Fledgling ACA Exchanges
Slipping enrollment and struggling competitors have done little to shake the faith that the nation’s biggest health insurers have placed in the Affordable Care Act’s public insurance exchanges. Aetna executives said Thursday that the exchanges, a key element in the overhaul’s push to cover millions of uninsured people, remain a good market, even though the insurer’s enrollment in them fell 11 percent to about 814,000 people in the third quarter. Leaders of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Anthem have voiced a similar sentiment, and UnitedHealth said earlier this month that it will expand into 11 more exchanges next year. (Murphy, 10/29)