Groups, insurers, officials mobilize for health law enrollment push

Mar 7 2014

March 31 is the deadline for signing up for insurance, and young adults and minorities are among the groups being targeted.

Kaiser Health News: Groups Make Final Push To Sign People Up For Obamacare
It's crunch time for Obamacare: With less than four weeks left to sign up for coverage this year through the health law's insurance marketplaces, consumer groups, insurers, hospitals and state and federal officials are ratcheting up their enrollment campaigns to deliver more people -- particularly young adults (Galewitz, 3/5).

The Washington Post: Insurers Increase Ads To Get People To Sign Up For Health Plans Under Affordable Care Act
As the March 31 enrollment deadline approaches, insurers are increasingly urging consumers to sign up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, even as some take swipes at the law, according to a new analysis of health-care advertising. Forty-six percent of insurer ad spending during the week of Feb. 24 went to commercials featuring the law, compared with 32 percent the week before, according to the ad tracking group Kantar Media CMAG (Eilperin, 3/5).

The Associated Press: Michelle Obama Promotes Health Insurance In Fla.
With just weeks left to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Michelle Obama zeroed in on recruiting the crucial young adult demographic during a visit to a Miami community health center Wednesday. The first lady congratulated a handful of residents who had just enrolled during an intimate event, asking one woman whether she had gotten her son to enroll (Kennedy, 3/5).

The Hill: Obama's Final Push To Boost Latino Enrollees
President Obama will participate in a town hall Thursday morning at the Newseum, in a bid to encourage Latinos to enroll in Obamacare before the March 31 deadline. The question-and-answer session will be hosted by the Asegúrate campaign, a collaboration between the nonprofit California Endowment, a private health endowment,  and major Spanish-language media outlets, including Univision and Telemundo (Sink, 3/5).

Politico: Final Obamacare Push Focusing On Latino Community
For the uninsured Latinos who live in places like El Paso, the political drama surrounding Obamacare seems very far away. They are more concerned with understanding how the Affordable Care Act benefits them. And with open enrollment ending March 31, time is running out for people like Margarita Sanchez -- or President Barack Obama -- to explain that to them (Haberkorn and Kenen, 3/5).

Kaiser Health News: Marketing Mistakes Hurt Latino Enrollment In California
It's been decades since the advertising industry recognized the need to woo Hispanic consumers. Big companies saw the market potential and sank millions of dollars into ads. The most basic do's and don'ts of marketing to Latinos in the U.S. have been understood for years. So when California officials started thinking about how to persuade the state's Latino population to enroll in health care plans, they should have had a blueprint of what to do. Instead, they made a series of mistakes (Dembosky, 3/6).

Los Angeles Times: Covered California Begins Ad Blitz In Final Enrollment Weeks
With less than a month left for enrollment in Obamacare, California's insurance exchange is applying a major dose of peer pressure. In a new TV ad blitz, recent enrollees extol the benefits of having coverage for checkups or a serious illness. A man plays soccer with his sons, a musician carries his guitar down the street. "I'm in," young, fit-looking people say. "Are you in?" the announcer asks (Karlamangla, 3/5).

USA Today: Blacks In South Urged To Enroll In Health Care Plans
The fliers, featuring a smiling African-American family, invite people to Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church each Saturday this month to learn more about the Affordable Care Act -- and hopefully to enroll in a health insurance plan. It's all part of a determined effort by community groups, churches and civil rights organizations -- particularly in the South -- to sign up more African Americans for health care under the federal law ahead of the March 31 enrollment deadline (Barfield Berry, 3/5).

Health News Colorado: Final Push For Health Sign-Ups By March 31
Patty Fontneau, CEO of Connect for Health Colorado, said exchange officials are working hard this month to let people know that now is the last chance to buy. "We are stepping up outreach efforts to help as many Coloradans as possible access coverage and tax credits in the final four weeks of open enrollment," Fontneau said in a press release. Of 84,881 people who bought insurance through Colorado's exchange, about 56 percent have so far qualified for federal subsidies to make insurance more affordable (McCrimmon, 3/5).

The Denver Post: Patients Can Get Help Navigating Health Care
Nicole King said there was a woman who came into Doctors Care in Littleton with a respiratory infection, plus jaundice and substance-abuse problems. There wasn't much they could do for her in terms of substance abuse because she was uninsured at the time. But through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, she was able to get Medicaid (Woullard, 3/6).