Abstract
Federal funding cuts to enrollment outreach and marketing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace options in 2017 has raised questions about the adequacy of the information the public has received, especially among populations vulnerable to uninsurance. Using health insurance ads aired from January 1, 2018, through December 21, 2018, we conducted a content analysis focused on (a) the messaging differences by ad language (English vs. Spanish) and (b) the messaging appeals used by nonfederally sponsored health insurance ads in 2018. The results reveal that privately sponsored ads focused on benefit appeals (e.g., prescription drugs), while publicly sponsored ads emphasized financial assistance subsidies. Few ads, regardless of language, referenced the ACA explicitly and privately sponsored Spanish-language ads emphasized benefits (e.g., choice of doctor) over enrollment-relevant details. This study emphasizes that private-sponsored television marketing may not provide specific and actionable health insurance information to the public, especially for the Spanish-speaking populations.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 798-810 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Medical Care Research and Review |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, grant number 1808-08181. Cynthia Pando is supported by grant (T32HD095134) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- Affordable Care Act
- advertising
- health insurance
- health insurers
- language
