Our goal was simple: enroll uninsured Americans through HealthCare.gov during the annual Open Enrollment Period (OEP) from November 2023 to January 2024. We aimed to meet or exceed enrollment of new uninsured Americans as the previous year’s OEP, our highest year so far. We also wanted to motivate current enrollees to “actively” re-enroll. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data showed that enrollees who actively shopped for and compared plans on HealthCare.gov would ultimately choose a lower-cost plan, saving them hundreds of dollars in premiums.
HealthCare.gov was created to ensure uninsured Americans have access to affordable health coverage. Though we made significant progress in enrollment, millions of Americans remained uninsured. Too many believed health insurance was simply unaffordable, despite their eligibility for financial help, and did not trust the government nor big insurance companies.
So how could we effectively communicate to this large and diverse group of Americans – especially those traditionally underserved and minority Americans – that health care coverage was within their reach despite their low income?
We landed on a simple, compelling truth: people trust their peers. To overcome their skepticism and motivate action, we rooted our campaign strategy in two important behavioral science theories: social norming and self-efficacy. We wanted to show audiences – not just tell them – that millions of people just like them, in their same situation, were finding low-cost health plans through HealthCare.gov. And we wanted potential enrollees to see that getting covered was achievable and that they could do it too. We could overcome audience disbelief and hesitancy with real people who they find relatable, authentic, and trustworthy.
Our campaign featured real people paying real prices for their actual health plans, demonstrating that Americans just like them could afford coverage. Starring real people of different races, ethnicities, ages and family status, we intentionally celebrated the diversity of the population HealthCare.gov serves. To boost authenticity, we filmed real customers at their homes and in their everyday environments, which helped them feel more open and comfortable, resulting in more sincere and authentic interviews. By letting real customers speak for the brand, we provided a relatable and trustworthy perspective.
We engaged audiences through an integrated campaign, leveraging paid media, earned outreach, influencer engagement and email to seek coverage through HealthCare.gov. The surround sound media strategy incorporated national broadcast TV, OTT, digital video, social, digital banners, high impact take-overs as well as search, all optimized for performance. We utilized advanced audience targeting and segmentation techniques to ensure our campaign reached the right individuals. To ensure the success of our strategy, we actively used real-time analytics for campaign optimization. Further, we partnered with minority-owned agencies to create and develop specific campaign approaches to reach and enroll historically under-served Americans, including African American and AANHPI audiences (in six languages). (Note: Hispanic outreach was conducted through a separate contract, with whom we coordinated closely.)
The result was a successful campaign that yielded record-breaking results, demonstrating the value of a data-driven, audience-focused approach. 16.4 million Americans enrolled in health plans through HealthCare.gov during the Open Enrollment Period – 35% more enrollees than the previous year’s total enrollment (12.2 million). Further, we enrolled 4.2 new enrollees in coverage – 40% higher than the previous year’s new enrollee total (3.0 million). With re-enrollees, 8.5 million “actively” re-enrolled in coverage – nearly 2 million more than the year before. This is important as CMS data shows that re-enrollees who actively shopped and compared health plans on HealthCare.gov ultimately chose lower-cost plans that saved them hundreds of dollars in health plan premiums each year.
But don’t just take our word for it. Some very important people recognized how successful the campaign was:
“Today, we broke another record when it comes to lowering costs and ensuring Americans have access to quality, affordable healthcare.” President Joe Biden, January 2024
“Today is a momentous day. A record number of people in the United States have health care coverage through the [HealthCare.gov] — more than at any point in history.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, January 2024
“…a record-breaking achievement. [Millions of Americans] have the security of knowing they have access to affordable health care in 2024.” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, January 2024
Enrollment results source: https://www.cms.gov/files/document/health-insurance-exchanges-2024-open-enrollment-report-final.pdf
