Paul Bunyan and Babe Miss The Point

As predicted, the federal money being spent to market the health care exchanges is really flying out the door. Last Thursday the Department of Health and Human Services awarded another $60 million in grants to organization for the health care “navigators” who are supposed to help educate and enroll individuals in the exchanges.

The advertising campaigns for the exchanges in several states are also starting their kick-offs (remember, we’re supposed to be ready to go on October 1). The marketing theme for Connect for Health Colorado focuses on the benefits of the lower prices that are supposed to occur when health plans compete.  Oregonians are using folk music in their ads (Long Live Oregonians) to promote the CoverOregon exchange . And, only in Minnesota would we use Paul Bunyan to promote the MNSure health insurance exchange with the message “Land of 10,000 Reasons to Get Health Insurance” (not sure of the real message on this one).

Obamacare (or whatever you want to call it) has a serious branding problem. The Republicans still want to kill it and the Democrats don’t seem to want to fix it. Consumers are left in the middle not knowing what it really is and generally confused. These campaigns are going to need to break through a lot of political clutter.

Most of the statistics out there indicate that well over 70% of the population still doesn’t know what the health insurance exchange idea is all about. So, raising the awareness is an important first step. That’s what these advertising campaigns are supposed to do, and we’re spending a ton of money doing it.

Unfortunately, the real key to success of the whole Obamacare effort is to finally get individuals engaged in their health and the health care system- and being engaged is much more than just buying health insurance on an exchange. Engaged means being involved and aware of the bigger issue and aware of the reasons the health insurance exchange was created in the first place. It’s going to require some basic education about where we are in health care, what needs to happen to fix it, and what role each individual is being asked to play. We’re totally missing the boat on that one.

While the goal of these marketing campaigns is to raise the awareness and get as many people as possible to sign-up the real challenge is going to be what we do with them after they are in. The health care system is not being fixed, it will just have more people in it.

I don’t think Paul and Babe or the navigators will have very much to say about that.