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Affordable Care Leaves Consumers Confused

Affordable Care Leaves Consumers Confused

A critical problem in healthcare marketing today, specifically with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is the marketing is not put into understandable terms for public consumers. Ongoing polls show that the most effective advertising and marketing are those with a considerable amount of basic text infused with informed persuasion, an aspect which has been continually lacking in the industry today.

Everyone tends to assume that the public has some knowledge of the ACA, as the media has had us immersed in this widespread and controversial health care reformation. However recently there have been discoveries that the general public does not understand the majority of the information that has been provided to them regarding this significant change in healthcare.

As reported in the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: March 2013 57% of Americans, with the information provided to them, do not grasp how the changes the ACA is constituting will affect them. Perhaps more importantly, the marketing is ineffective to the most relevant audience, those with income under $40,000 and the uninsured.

A more recent mid August Gallup poll found that 3 in 10 Americans were not familiar with the ACA. Despite the continued efforts of the Obama administration to raise awareness on the health care law; according to Gallup 15 percent of Americans say they are very familiar with the law. Fifty-three percent say they are somewhat familiar with the ACA, 18 percent are not too familiar, and 12 percent are not familiar at all. This shows the essential issue with the effectiveness of the ACA’s health care marketing campaign.

    Additionally, Gallup reports that there is still a significant amount of apprehension from the American public regarding this new law. “More Americans disapprove (49%) than approve (41%) of the Affordable Care Act. An additional 11% have no opinion. As this landmark legislation enters the next phase in its implementation process, it remains divisive. With the exception of a bounce likely caused by President Barack Obama’s re-election in November 2012, Americans have been more disapproving than approving of the healthcare law.”

    What health care professionals can learn from this information, is that though medical jargon may be commonplace for you in your practice, the most effective marketing that will yield clients is information that they can understand. Infuse your in depth understanding to very basic relatable language and you will have the perfect combination for effective marketing.



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