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Health insurance company advertisements are breaking through to U.S. consumers despite President Trump’s constant Obamacare attacks and the cuts his administration made to the government’s marketing budget for individual coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Enrollment has been surging for individual coverage under the ACA following increased ad spending by health insurance companies that also started marketing earlier than past years. A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll released last week showed a “larger share of the public” seeing ads or commercials for health insurance and information about coverage under the ACA.
In the last four weeks, the share of the public that reported seeing ads that provided information on how to get insurance under the health law increased to 32% from 20% in October, Kaiser’s poll showed. Meanwhile, 41% of the public reported seeing ads in November from “an insurance company attempting to sell health insurance” compared to 34% in October.
“We do know that more people are recalling seeing these ads now that the enrollment period is underway,” Kaiser Family Foundation director of public opinion and survey research Liz Hamel said in an interview.
Nearly 1.5 million people had selected Obamacare from Nov. 1 through Nov. 11 via the healthcare.gov platform, which was well ahead of last year’s sign-up pace, figures released last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicate. The signups only include the 39 states using the healthcare.gov platform, which leaves out states like California where the state has its own exchange and Obamacare is popular.
Inside Obamacare: The Fix For America’s Ailing Health Care System explores the ways the Affordable Care Act will impact your health care.
Americans eligible for Obamacare began signing up Nov. 1 during open enrollment that runs to Dec. 15 for coverage that begins Jan. 1, 2018. This year’s open enrollment period was cut in half by the Trump administration compared to last year’s.
Furthermore, the Trump administration slashed the government’s budget for promotion during the fall open enrollment season by 90% to just 10 million. And money for navigators – people who help uninsured Americans buy coverage – has also been cut at the federal level, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
To counter moves by the Trump White House, insurers like Oscar Health launched new ads in September – six weeks before the beginning of open enrollment – and increased its ad spending.
Oscar’s moves appear to be paying off.
“The Get Covered campaign is resonating with Americans, as we've seen a 45% increase in shoppers coming to hioscar.com to buy an Oscar plan,” Oscar Health senior vice president of marketing Sara Rowghani said of the first two weeks consumers could select plans. “That’s because Oscar’s campaign is designed to be as useful as possible: people are most engaged with our helpful enrollment resources and TV ads like this one about a real Oscar members whose concierge team helped find her a specialist.”
Oscar Health has been among the insurers including Centene and Medica and certain Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans that are expanding into new states and counties.
