At Wednesday’s FamiliesUSA news conference about state health insurance exchanges, the people leading these efforts spoke as smartly about marketing as about platinum, gold, silver and bronze plans and sign-ups for qualified health plans vs. Medicaid.
The leaders of exchanges in California, Connecticut, Kentucky, New York and Washington shared stats about sign-ups. They also discussed their plans to increase the number of sign-ups by people under age 35.
One big event is going on today. Covered California is hosting a six-hour telethon with YouTube to get the young invincibles to sign up for Obamacare. Tell a Friend Get Covered is a website where people around the country can figure out how to sign up for insurance through a state or federal exchange.
“Our intent is to develop social content that we want real people who have been enrolled to share with their families and friends,” said Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California. “Advertising is important, but the biggest thing is friends telling friends.”
Covered California is taking a cue from the 2012 Obama campaign by making it very easy to share these stories on social media.
“With one click a person can send a note to all your friends on Facebook and Twitter,” he said.
Lee even mentioned sharing Vine videos, which are still relatively new to the social media world, as least for healthcare marketers.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The Washington HealthPlan Finder is also seeking out desired customers where they live. Richard K. Onizuka, CEO of the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, is sponsoring the launch party for the Sasquatch! Music Festival. People who “like” the exchange on Facebook (4,769 “likes” so far compared to 140,000+ “likes” for Covered California) will have a chance to get a pair of tickets to the party. One hundred people will win tickets to the February launch event, and two grand prize winners will receive V.I.P. tickets to both weekends (Memorial Day and July 4th weekends this year) of the Sasquatch! Music Festival.
This is the second year for the festival. It’s at The Gorge, an amphitheater carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, Wash., and tickets sold out in 90 minutes last year. Good choice, Washington HealthPlan Finder! I would get a babysitter for that show.
Kevin Counihan, chief executive officer of Access Health CT, said his organization is planning TV spots to address very specific questions about affordability. He said that most calls to the state’s call center are questions about the cost of the plans.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said the Obama administration told him that payers are going to launch their own campaigns over the next few weeks and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to win over more customers before open enrollment ends.
