- Mailings, Social Media Ads Woo Uninsured for Health Sign-Up Associated Press—The Obama administration says it’ll send more than 10 million mailings to woo the uninsured for the final health care law sign-up season of President Barack Obama’s tenure. Add to that countless email messages to both prospective and returning customers — and ads on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Officials are outlining the marketing campaign for the next sign-up season, which runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31.
- CMS Details Open Enrollment Strategy. Health Affairs Blog by Timothy Jost—The marketplaces (and indeed the entire individual market) opens for the fourth open enrollment (OE4) period on November 1, 2016. A recent Commonwealth Fund survey found that nearly 40 percent of the uninsured did not know about the marketplaces and nearly 50 percent did not know about the financial assistance they offer. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) believes that 10.7 million uninsured individuals are eligible for marketplace coverage, and 9 million of them for tax credits.
- Can’t Find a Plan on HealthCare.Gov? One May Be Picked for You. New York Times by Robert Pear—The federal government will choose health plans for hundreds of thousands of consumers whose insurers have left the Affordable Care Act marketplace unless those people opt out of the law’s exchanges or select plans on their own, under a new policy to make sure consumers maintain coverage in 2017.…That may make for a jarring start to the health law’s fourth annual open enrollment period, which starts Nov. 1, a week before Election Day, and runs through Jan. 31.