Fifty-five percent of Americans currently get their health insurance through an employer, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, meaning a significant amount of business insurance companies conduct is with other businesses. Only about 10 percent of Americans currently purchase their health insurance directly from an insurer.
But as health-care reform opens access to health insurance for millions more, insurers will be selling directly to many more Americans.
Although commercial health insurers, like Unitedhealth, Aetna, Coventry and Highmark, typically have focused a large part of their sales efforts on other businesses (i.e., employers, government), they’ve had to communicate directly with consumers (i.e., employees) once those businesses purchased their products. In my experience as a consumer of employer-sponsored health benefits, those communications have been geared mostly toward helping me understand how my benefits work and the features and value of them. As a “captive buyer,” I didn’t really need to know much more about the insurer than the breadth of its physician network and the premium my employer was charging me.
With as many as 30 million new prospective customers coming to the health insurance industry via the Affordable Care Act, it will be interesting to see how insurers will change their marketing communications strategies. Will communicating benefit plan details, features and premium cost directly to consumers be enough? As more Americans get access to the insurance market, many of them middle- and low-income, will insurers need to tell a robust story that is broad, has deep context and is authentic, or will network and cost be enough to grab up more market share?
On a public exchange where competition will be stiff, will plan features and a few dollars in savings be enough to win market share? It seems insurers believe it will be. In response to a 2012 Aetna survey that asked people about their experiences with insurance and health care (83 percent of consumers feel it is hard for them to know which plan is right for them), the company is developing new programs, tools and resources that will help consumers engage with health-care providers and manage their health and wellness.
My bet is that not only is Aetna developing such resources, but so is every other major health insurer. So if I’m buying my insurance on a public exchange, and my subsidy enables me to choose between similar plans with similar physician networks from five insurers, which one do I pick?
Consumers need context, and story can provide it. Story, with a capital S, is broad and deep. It provides a more robust, authentic and useful framework to engage consumers. Insurers that position their business as nothing more than another highly competitive corporate entity damage their ability to communicate authentically. Your Story is built on your purpose, those things that differentiate your business from your competition. How are you meeting the needs of the communities you serve, especially if you are a nonprofit insurer or new player in the market? Your Story answers that.
Every insurer does or will have an app that enables consumers to manage their health care in some way or another. Every insurer talks about engagement and helping customers stay healthy. So why one insurer over another? Story matters – why your organization exists, why someone would want to work for you, partner with you, buy your products or services or invest in you – and should be front and center when marketing, communicating and differentiating.
It will be interesting to see whether, as health care undergoes seismic shifts, insurers will shift their message, too. What’s your prediction?
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Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
