Implementing a Successful Public Education & Marketing Campaign to Promote State Health Insurance Exchanges

Under the Affordable Care Act, all states must either develop or participate in a health insurance exchange which must give consumers complete and easy-to-understand information about health insurance options. Since this requirement was modeled after Massachusetts’ health reform law, many are turning to Massachusetts officials for learnings from the past five years.

The series’ second installment, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, reveals several key lessons from Massachusetts and suggests that those managing exchanges will need to do the following to ensure success:

• Assemble a team with successful marketing and advertising expertise;
• Engage in cost-effective digital marketing, including search optimization and “pay-per-click” ads;
• Conduct marketing research to shape strategies and messages that resonate;
• Partner with private and public entities to increase market penetration via fliers at store check-outs, bus ads, Jumbotron announcements at sporting events, etc.;
• Maintain ongoing support through a broad-based coalition; and
• Measure and report on successes regularly.

This toolkit series, released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, provides examples, templates and lessons from Massachusetts. Each toolkit includes a narrative and a variety of source documents, including examples of organizational structures, job descriptions, requests for proposals, and more.