New ads to tell uninsured they’ve got options now

Representatives of Little Rock advertising agency Mangan Holcomb Partners unveiled Friday examples of the marketing campaign that they propose to encourage poor Arkansans to enroll for insurance coverage through a statewide health insurance exchange.

The campaign slogan, “Get in,” is part of the education effort aimed at more than 500,000 Arkansans who lack health insurance. Sample ads highlight the letters “in” that appear in key words of the advertising copy.

Enrollment in the exchange will start Oct. 1.

Most of the uninsured will be eligible for subsidized coverage through an exchange the state is setting up in partnership with the federal government under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

That includes 250,000 people who will be eligible for Medicaid under an expansion of the program passed by the state Legislature during this year’s session. The Medicaid-eligible residents will be able to enroll in a private plan through the exchange and have their premiums paid by the insurance program for the poor.

Many others with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid will be eligible for federal tax credits that will cover part of their premiums through the exchange.A study by Families USA, an advocacy group that supported the health-care overhaul law, estimated that the credits will be available to more than 280,000 Arkansans.

Businesses with fewer than 25 employees that pay average annual wages of less than $50,000 will also be eligible for tax credits covering up to half of their premium expenses if they help their employees buy coverage.

Explaining the proposed slogan, Chip Culpepper, a partner in Mangan Holcomb, told the exchange’s Consumer Assistance Advisory Committee on Friday that the campaign will target people who have been “left out.”

“We want people to get in and get that affordable health insurance that’s now available to them for the first time ever,” Culpepper said.

A series of sample ads presented to the committee featured smiling families, children and others, with the word “in” in the slogan circled. Each ad also used a variation of the slogan, such as “families are in” and “affordable insurance,” with the first two letters of “insurance” circled.

Using federal grant money, the state Insurance Department last week awarded Mangan Holcomb a $4.3 million contract to conduct the campaign, which will include educational events, direct mail and signs displayed at gas pumps as well as television spots, newspaper ads, billboards and other media. Versions of the advertisements will appear in Spanish and other languages.

Members of “street teams” will talk to people about the health insurance options in beauty shops, grocery stores, churches and soccer fields, according to the firm’s proposal.

Isadora Brown, director of account management and consumer engagement for Atlanta-based Lattimer Communications, said her firm used similar teams in a campaign to enroll people in a Medicaid managed-care plan in Georgia. Mangan Holcomb hired Lattimer to head the Arkansas campaign’s “multicultural” component.

“We went into communities all over Georgia - rural, city, farming,” Brown said. “We understand the different ways that you need to speak to people, and we know the importance of using the people in the community to provide that message.”

Mangan Holcomb executives stressed that the campaign is still being developed.The slogan and other facets of the campaign will be tested in focus groups throughout Arkansas, they said.

Committee members offered several observations.

Committee member Bob Coffey, an advocate for people with HIV, said some people who lack insurance wouldn’t be able to identify with the people shown in the sample advertisements.

“I didn’t see me up there, and I didn’t see a lot of the folks that I work with,” Coffey said. “As part of the gay/lesbian community, those families don’t look like me.”

Idonia Trotter, director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, cautioned the advertising executives against making children the focus of advertisements. Existing Medicaid programs already cover children in low-income families, she said. Most of the state’s uninsured are adults.

Anna Strong, a co-chairman of the committee and health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, urged the marketers to keep the committee involved in their plans.

“I don’t want you to wait another month to make a presentation on what’s happened without any input from us,” she said.

DIFFERENT PLANS

The expansion approved by the Legislature will extend Medicaid to adults with household incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level. That threshold, based on this year’s poverty guidelines, is $15,860 for an individual or $32,500 for a family of four.

Through ARKids First, Arkansas’ Medicaid program currently covers children in households with up to 200 percent of the poverty level - $47,100 for a family of four.

The tax credit subsidies under the Affordable Care Act will be available to those who don’t qualify for Medicaid and have incomes below 400 percent of the poverty level - up to $45,960 for an individual and $94,200 for a family of four.

In the health insurance exchanges, consumers will be able to choose between four tiers of coverage: bronze, silver, gold or platinum.

Bronze plans, for instance, will be designed to cover an average of 60 percent of a patient’s medical costs, with the rest of the expenses paid by the patient through deductibles and co-payments. A platinum plan would have a higher premium but would be designed to pay 90 percent of the costs.

The silver plans will be designed to pay 70 percent of the costs, but patients with incomes between 138 and 250 percent of the poverty level will have their co-payments and deductibles reduced through federal subsidies. For people with incomes just above 138 percent of the poverty level, for instance, the subsidies will limit the patient’s expenses to 6 percent of the total cost.

For those eligible for Medicaid, the silver plans will limit out-of-pocket costs to 5 percent of the patient’s income and make any co-payments optional for those with incomes at or below the poverty level.

The Affordable Care Act requires each plan level to offer a core package of “essential health benefits,” including ambulance service, emergency care, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance-abuse disorder services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services, and medical devices, laboratory services, preventive and wellness services, and chronic disease management.

Federal Medicaid rules also require coverage of some services, such as non-emergency medical transportation, that the private plans are not required to cover. For those who qualify for Medicaid and who enroll in a private plan, Medicaid will pay for those services directly.

Insurance companies have until June 30 to apply to offer coverage through the exchanges. The approved plans will be announced Sept. 4.

Each of the state’s 75 counties will have at least two plans available to eligible residents, said Cindy Crone, planning director for the exchanges.

The open enrollment period will end March 31, 2014. Those who qualify for Medicaid will be able to apply at any time after Oct. 1 of this year.

People will be able to enroll through a website, by phone or through the mail.

Those who fail to obtain coverage next year will be subject to a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of their income, whichever is greater. The penalty will not apply to those who would have to pay more than 8 percent of their income for insurance.

ASSISTANCE AVENUES

Since December 2010, Crone and other insurance department officials have been giving talks about the healthcare law to civic groups and health-care providers around the state.

Next month, the department plans to train more than 40 people, including volunteers and employees of the Department of Health, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the Minority Health Commission, to give similar presentations.

In the next few weeks, the department also plans to award more than $16 million worth of contracts with government agencies, nonprofits and companies to provide 535 “in-person assisters” who will help people enroll.

The Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma, and the Central Arkansas Library System are among 27 private and three public entities that have applied for the funding.

In her application, Kalena Jones, director of the Arkansas Health Care Access Foundation in Little Rock, said she would tap a database of uninsured Arkansans who have gone to the foundation for help. The foundation refers people with low incomes who lack insurance to doctors and dentists who volunteer to provide free care.

Bobby Roberts, the library system’s director, said he considered the system’s application as “almost an act of self-defense,” because he expects many people who lack home Internet access to go to the library for help.

The library system has proposed setting up computer labs for enrollment at two Little Rock locations - the Main Library downtown and the Children’s Library at 4800 W. 10th St. Eight full-time employees would help people enroll.

Roberts compared the coming enrollment period to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when hundreds of displaced people from New Orleans went to the Main Library to use its computers.

“In many ways, the library is going to be the default place people go,” Roberts said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/13/2013

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