MASSACHUSETTS
HEALTH CONNECTOR
“Health Insurance for All”
That was the promise of Massachusetts’ groundbreaking legislation in 2006.
How to communicate to 400,000-800,000 uninsured Massachusetts residents that they now have to be insured? And tell them where to find affordable insurance?
By helping to launch, explain, and promote the “Health Connector” – Massachusetts’ one-stop shopping site for affordable health insurance.
© 2012 Sawyer Miller
Initially, we had two audiences to reach: a broader audience to create awareness of the new law; and a younger, largely male audience of the uninsured, harder to persuade because they didn’t think they needed health insurance at all. In TV, radio, print and outdoor, we addressed the broad audience inclusively – and spoke to the young uninsured audience in a “peer-to-peer” style.
At the same time, we reached out to ethnic and minority populations, which have a high percentage of uninsured.
As the campaign rolled out, we strengthened our message with carefully-presented inclusion of state penalties for not enrolling, while amplifying our message about the Health Connector itself as the trusted, state-endorsed, easy-to-use source for affordable insurance choices.
A “Business Express” product, tailored especially for Massachusetts small business owners; radio and banner flights in the period of “Open Enrollment,” when customers are re-choosing their annual plans; the breadth of our program, and our strong results, serve as a template for other state plans mandated for launch in 2014.
