Health Insurance Exchanges: 4th & 10

If you haven’t already heard, the Department of Health and Human Services is in active negotiations with the National Football League to leverage its broad reaching media platform to promote and grow awareness about the impending online health insurance exchanges. The exchanges (or marketplaces, as HHS arbitrarily decided to begin calling them back in January of this year) are really the pinnacle upon which much of the long-term economic success or failure of the Affordable Care Act rests.

The exchanges are to consist of regulated and standardized healthcare plans from which individuals will be able to purchase health insurance that is eligible for federal subsidies. Only 17 states have so far opted to develop their own exchanges (including DC), while an additional 7 are developing partnership exchanges with participation of the federal government. That leaves another 27 states that have chosen to have the federal government develop and administrate exchanges on their behalves. Thus, we could have Terry Bradshaw and Dan Marino now benefitting from both sides of the healthcare paradigm: Nutrisystem on one side and insuring against the consequences of obesity and diabetes on the other.

And in what is no doubt another unintended irony of federal healthcare policy HHS will be choosing to utilize a marketing platform in which the primary communicators are specifically restricted from discussing the health of the individuals playing the game being featured (i.e., due to HIPAA requirements). Just imagine Joe Buck describing the action this fall.

“Ow! That was a tough hit Troy.  I’m not wanting to speculate on whether his knee normally bends all the way forward like that or not, but given where his foot is now resting I’m thinking that hypothetically such a condition could constitute an injury. And hey, while they are carrying away the player whose condition is confidential on a stretcher, this gives us a chance to pause here and remind everyone that you probably shouldn’t wait until your ligaments are shredded before you take advantage of the wonderful discounts now being offered in your state insurance market, er, or I mean exchange . . . did I get that right, Troy?”

Let’s face it: the federal government just doesn’t do marketing very well. As opposed to all of the things it does do very well, right? Wrote it before you thought it. But there have been some notable exceptions too, the source for many of those being the National Ad Council (remember the Crying Indian from the Keep America Beautiful Campaign of 1971?) I still can’t watch that ad without tearing up. Where did that type of talent go and why isn’t such creativity being employed to promote the benefits of the ACA?

Beyond just marketing, the lack of effective communication for the Affordable Care Act has been a complaint of mine dating back four summers ago when the ACA was still a bill being debated in town halls and at dinner tables across the country.  The number one search string for this blog continues to be queries regarding whether or not the ACA will ration knee replacements for seniors. Think there’s a need for more education and awareness?

We have had two presidential administrations now with weak communication skills. In George Bush we had a president whose every public appearance offered new and imaginative ways to use the English language. Now with President Obama we have someone who, to me, frankly just doesn’t seem to like being around people. Now that’s a general disposition I can certainly appreciate – but how one reconciles that disposition with a desire to be effective in public office is a little more difficult to understand.

Invariably, the ultimate effectiveness of a public policy will be more indebted to its implementation than its design. We have seen this administration step on rake after rake in developing marketing and communication strategies that reflect its own arrogance and disconnect with understanding simple yet common realities – like concern over whether or not someone is going to be able to get a knee replacement.

I have read that a primary strategy of leveraging sporting venues such as the NFL to promote the insurance exchanges is to target young, healthy men – who actuarially are less likely to need healthcare. In order for any insurance pool to be financially viable you have to have enough folks paying in that will never get paid out. That makes sense in theory, but think of this: how do the guys you see in all of the beer commercials ran during NFL games compare to the guys sitting around watching the game with you?

Just sayin’

Cheers,
  Sparky