Covered California announced a marketing campaign aimed at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities to encourage them to enroll in new ACA health plans through the exchange. The print media and billboard advertising is in addition to grants to LGBT organizations to provide outreach and education.
Rainbow over Covered California
It is great that Covered California recognizes the cultural and life style diversity of the golden state and not just the ethnic diversity. I can only hope that marketing campaign aim at the LGBT(QI) communities are more effective than outreach to the Hispanic community which has resulted in poor enrollment numbers. Enrollment statistics released November 21 showed that only 4.7% of completed application came from the Spanish speaking community that comprises 28% of the state’s population.
Who tracks LGBTQI?
The poor enrollment numbers for the Hispanic community is embarrassing when you consider the millions of dollars spent on outreach, education and advertising to the Spanish language community by Covered California. A campaign targeting the LGBTQI communities is relatively safe for Covered California because there is no tracking on the application for a person’s sexual identity. While there are fifteen different categories to be identified by race, another five sub-categories for Hispanic, Latino or Spanish, there is no check mark for
- Lesbian
- Gay
- Bisexual
- Transgender
- Queer
- Intersex
So how will Covered California know if the money they have spent marketing to the LGBTQI communities had any significant return on investment?
No discrimination with application progress
The one area that the LGBTQI communities are not being discriminated in is application status. Covered California is fumbling with numerous paper and online applications regardless of income, race or sexual identity. Married same sex couples that filed a paper application in October are no closer the finish line of being approved for premium assistance and a health plan than some families with five children that were successful in completing an online application during the same time period.
State – Federal tax filing conflicts
There are a variety of reasons why an application may be stuck in limbo and often it deals with verification documents for citizenship, residency or income. For LGBTQI and Registered Domestic Partnerships it is hard to know if their particular situations are causing delays greater than the average. See also “What type of income is considered for Covered California“. A delay of actually applying for a health plan has occurred for many LGBTQI people as they slog through the health plans looking for a physician that is amenable to their situation and health challenges. See also “Transgender benefits now included in health plans”
Marketing over substance
The California Association of Health Underwriters were crowing about how they got Covered California to include more “marketing” language about Certified Agents being there to help the clients. It could be that Covered California was reluctant to include on their website the unsubstantiated claims that –
A Certified Insurance Agent can be your partner in every step of your path to get covered and stay covered including, but not limited to:
- Assist you with completing the single streamlined application;
- Track your progress through the enrollment process;
- Help you evaluate your health care needs and budget considerations to recommend a plan that works best for your family; and
- Provide additional help after you enroll in a plan on an ongoing basis.
Some agents discriminate on income and identity
I have talked to agents that won’t help anyone they suspect of being eligible for Medi-Cal and there are certainly agents that don’t want to work with the LGBTQI communities. California Association of Health Underwriters is a fancy, and now antiquated term, for health insurance agents. Not only does CAHU and their parent organization National Association of Health Underwriters indirectly represent the interests of health insurance companies, they never favored the ACA and have supported repealing the law altogether. CAHU consistently opposes any consumer legislation that might harm agents or health insurance companies from a profit perspective.
Give me answers not marketing hype
Where CAHU could be most effective is not lobbying their new friends at Covered California, a bureaucracy they never wanted to see installed, for fuzzy friendly marketing language for agents, but get agents the information on how Covered California is processing the applications. Agents were never given any substantial training on Medi-Cal, the types of income included in MAGI, determining immigration status and the necessary documentation. Agents were only recently given the ability to see their clients through Covered California online and initiate an application on someone’s behalf.
It gets Better, Really?
But there is still a wall of silence, or a better description might be a 60 minute hold time on the telephone to speak with a Covered California representative about a stalled application. What is the Trevor Project expression, “It gets better.” I am certain that Covered California will get better. Right now, it doesn’t matter who you are, what language you speak, or what clothes you wear, some Covered Applications are stuck in a bottle neck of paper work.
Covered California press release on LGBT outreach
COVERED CALIFORNIA REACHES OUT TO LESBIAN, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER CONSUMERS ON BILLBOARDS, PRINT ADS
Marketing Effort Will Help Educate and Enroll the LGBT Community in Affordable Quality Health Care
LOS ANGELES, Calif. —Covered California™ today highlighted advertising aimed at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community on billboards and print advertising throughout the state.
“Covered California offers affordable, quality health care coverage, and we are working hard to get the word out and encourage enrollment,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. “The print and billboard advertising aimed at the LGBT community is a key component of our marketing and outreach effort. We want all Californians to check out the new health care marketplace at www.coveredca.com and see the benefits of getting covered.”
LGBT focused billboards have been placed in the following locations:
- Bay Area
o Market and 16th Street (San Francisco)
o Market and 24th Street (Oakland)
- San Diego
o University Avenue and 1st Avenue
- Los Angeles
o Fairfax and South Lindenhurst
o Highland and Santa Monica NE
In addition to billboards, print ads are also running in the largest LGBT focused publications.
The LGBT campaign will complement Covered California’s general advertising effort that is already serving California’s diverse communities.
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CAHU’s President’s announcement on new agent marketing language on Covered California
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE December 3, 2013
Covered California Updates Agent Language
We are very pleased to report that the agent language which we have worked so hard to have changed has been uploaded to the Covered California website providing an accurate and positive description of the role of the agent. This, along with the new graphics associated with agents are a great improvement and better reflect the important role agents play in the exchange market.
Everyone worked hard to get this done and we would like to thank the many members that gave us their suggestions and input that helped formulate the final language.
We would like to also thank Chris Patton at Covered California/Pinnacle and Dianne Koelzer and Anne Gezi at Covered California for the support and diligence in bringing this important change to fruition. Our thanks go as well to Peter Lee, Executive Director of Covered California, without whose support, this wouldn’t have happened.
While we still have issues that we are working on, we are very pleased that this one is done!
Updated Language:
[-] Certified Insurance Agents
A Certified Insurance Agent is a licensed health insurance agent who has passed Covered California’s intensive training and certification program. You have the option of working with a Certified Insurance Agent at no cost to you.
[-] What a Certified Insurance Agent Can Do For You
A Certified Insurance Agent can be your partner in every step of your path to get covered and stay covered including, but not limited to:
- Assist you with completing the single streamlined application;
- Track your progress through the enrollment process;
- Help you evaluate your health care needs and budget considerations to recommend a plan that works best for your family; and
- Provide additional help after you enroll in a plan on an ongoing basis.
[-] How to Find an Agent
You may use Covered California’s agent search tool to locate a Certified Insurance Agent close to you or find one that you already know. Using this tool, you will also be able to find out more about a Certified Insurance Agent’s areas of expertise and designate a Certified Insurance Agent to act on your behalf.
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