The Obama administration is partnering with the online gaming platform Twitch and rolling out a better mobile version of healthcare.gov as part of a new effort to enroll young people in Obamacare plans.
The broad strategy to reach young adults leading up to the healthcare law’s fourth enrollment season will also include a new social media campaign using the hashtag #HealthyAdulting, where groups including Planned Parenthood, the National Council of La Raza and March of Dimes will promote enrollment to their online followers.
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said her agency is “pulling out all the stops” this year to dramatically boost young adult enrollment in health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It’s a demographic that the administration has struggled to attract in the last few years.
“No more clicking on tiny boxes and zooming in to tiny font,” Burwell said at a White House forum on Tuesday, stressing her agency will try to reach people “where they’re most likely to be,” like on their phones.
Burwell said the announcement is just the first in a series of new outreach efforts aimed at young people that HHS will roll out leading up to the enrollment period starting Nov. 1.
While young adults ages 18-34 have seen the largest gains in insurance coverage under President Obama’s healthcare law, they remain the age group with the highest uninsured rate. The administration has struggled to attract as many new enrollees in that age category as it had hoped, potentially making it harder for insurers to keep rates down without the healthier customers.
“That’s a huge, missed opportunity especially because coverage is within their reach,” Burwell said, adding that HHS is aiming to “deliver the strongest enrollment yet.”
Twitch, a video platform and community for gamers visited daily by nearly 10 million people, will run paid ads for healthcare.gov on the homepage and before videos, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The site is mostly used by 18 to 34-year-olds, the age group the administration is targeting.
Outreach efforts are also aimed at helping millennials enroll using their mobile devices, as a growing number of young adults access the Internet primary through their cell phones. The mobile version of healthcare.gov had been criticized for being cumbersome and difficult to access, but a new, optimized version will allow shoppers to comparison shop for the first time, the administration said.
