“Young Invincibles” targeted in insurance enrollment campaign

 

One of the great challenges facing state medical insurance exchanges is convincing young people—who generally aren’t facing significant health challenges—to enroll. Dubbed “young invincibles,” these people were the target of a marketing campaign from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. The campaign was so effective that it has won first place in the “Marketing Campaign” category of Ragan’s 2016 Health Care PR and Marketing Awards.

With limited resources, the Exchange relied on data to identify the geographic areas where uninsured were congregated, supplemented by focus groups to help ensure messaging was relevant to the audience. National research on why recently uninsured people purchase coverage was also key to the strategy. The information led to the development of two key messages: the availability of financial help to reduce the cost of coverage, and in-person assistance with enrollment. 

Although the target audience included all eligible adults, a special focus on young invincibles helped direct the messaging to areas with the highest concentration of households within the target audience. Community outreach aimed at the African-American community led to partnerships with organizations like the NAACP and others, along with a “Super Health Sunday” hosted at churches. Similar outreach efforts got the word out to the Hispanic community. 

The outcome of this highly targeted effort was a 33 percent enrollment increase over the previous year, with young invincibles accounting for a significant portion of the total. Hispanic enrollment rose by an amazing 244 percent. 

Congratulations go to Julie Bataille, Alison Betty, Joe Brener, Don Corrigan, Ally Flaherty, Alex Gordon, Riley Greene, Daniel Jester, Laura Kristovensky, Saakshi Monga, Melissa Morales, Tiffany Neal, Kelly Polce, David Smith, Mimi Tan, Sabena Toor and Brandon Wheeler.