North Carolina's Republican General Assembly and governor oppose Obamacare and so the federal government is running the state marketplace where insurers will sell policies.
As people who have been uninsured or had their coverage provided by employers start shopping around, the North Carolina Blues is reaching out like never before to expand on its 375,000 insurance policies for individuals, said marketing director Bruce Allen. The goal is explaining the federal law, which requires everyone to have coverage or pay a fine and subsidizes many middle-class consumers who might otherwise not be able to afford policies on their own. The law also prohibits insurers from rejecting customers who have pre-existing health conditions.
"There's a big segment of the population that really wants to talk to someone face to face about it," Allen said. "It's a new market that's entering that doesn't have health insurance, never had it, and really needs kind of that step-by-step walk-through to understand a really critical decision for them to make."
Across the country, Blues companies are among the health insurers most aggressive in reaching out to build consumer trust and capture their spending on policies. Spots for a broad new print, television and online advertising campaign are multiplying. Meetings with civic organizations community groups, and religious institutions are taking place from Vermont to Texas. The North Carolina company has rented movie theaters and invited guests to watch first-run films, with the addition of a 15-minute ad explaining the Affordable Care Act and laptop-ready staffers in the lobby offering individual guidance on the law.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the umbrella organization for the country's 38 Blues companies, launched a campaign last month with the Walgreen Co. drugstore chain, with signs and brochures in about 8,000 stores.
WellPoint, the largest operator of Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans, is teaming up with Spanish-language TV and radio network Univision in California, New York, Colorado and Georgia for meetings, broadcast advertisements, and newscast segments describing what coverage means and how to buy insurance on an online exchange.
Blues companies already are some of the country's biggest sellers of health insurance policies for individuals. Seven Blues companies, including North Carolina's, were among the top 10 at the end of 2011, according to Atlantic Information Services, which specializes in health industry data and news.
Government, too, is ramping up efforts to reach the working poor, young people and others with no health coverage. President Barack Obama's administration and many states are launching campaigns this summer to get the word out. Grass-roots organizers are recruiting pastors, barbers and mothers to convey the message. In some neighborhoods, volunteers organized by a coalition of health companies and advocates hand out brochures.
But any company marketing efforts come as most Americans are confused or uninformed about what the new health insurance law means to them. Only about one in five had heard about the health insurance marketplaces as of June, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"There is a lot of misinformation out there. One of the things that we hear often is that I have to go buy a government plan on the marketplace," Allen said. "We spend a lot of time explaining to people, 'You're going to buy a private insurance plan. There is no government plan.' "
