What's Coming:

Looking Ahead to Implementation

Communications Strategies and Messaging on Prevention

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Message of the Week: (download PDF)

Below is a consensus message document agreed to be many national groups working on fixing health care. The goal is to have those fighting to pass health reform message with a unified voice, especially leading up to the health summit on February 25.

Following the consensus message are messaging tips that HA suggests you keep in mind as you push the message out. These tips evolved from focus groups conducted the week of January 18-22.

Bob Crittenden
The Herndon Alliance

Message + Messaging Tips

After more than a year of debate, Congress should listen to everyday Americans, not the insurance lobbyists who are spending millions to block health care reform and protect their profits. We've had enough of insurance companies' denied claims, inflated profits and soaring premiums. Health care costs are crushing our families and small businesses. We can't wait any longer. We need reform now. No excuses. No more politics. We need good health care we can count on now.

The health care reform now in Congress will:

• Stop insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and cutting people off when they get sick;
• Require insurance companies to spend money on health care, not CEO salaries and profits. Right now they get to spend too much of their income on CEO salaries, rising profits, Washington lobbyists and armies of bureaucrats who do nothing but deny claims;
• Strengthen Medicare and close the "donut hole" in drug benefit plans for seniors;
• Help small businesses afford health insurance for their employees;
• Control costs and make good health insurance affordable to everyone.

Congress needs to act now and get it right before other insurance companies start demanding huge rate increases like the 39% increase recently announced by Anthem Blue Cross. We've got to rein in the insurance companies right now.

Messaging Tips

Background: Based on HA focus groups and national polls (Washington Post/ABC, LRP)

Independent voters are skeptical that '2000 pages', the 'sausage making' legislative process, the 'back room deals', and 'partisanship' will deliver on what they need. They remain uncertain as to what is in the legislation. They continue to think it has more to do with the uninsured and associate 'health reform' with creating a government-administered plan to cover the uninsured. They start out negative (70%) about health reform, thinking it will have more of a negative (increase to deficit; increase in taxes and costs; and/or inferior quality of care) than a positive impact. They want us to be careful, not rush, with change.

While they are concerned about reform, they shift to support once they hear specifically what is in the Senate bill and the accompanying arguments for and against. They like the arguments for reform - but don't trust that they will happen. They think the arguments against reform are over the top and not believable.

Even with the concerns and lack of trust, 56% of independent voters (88% democrats; 42% republicans) want Congress to move ahead with comprehensive reform.

Messaging Tips:

• 1. Tie reform to being on the side of everyday people and working to make sure insurance companies are reined in (use recent rate hikes as example);
• 2. What the public most wants from reform is peace of mind; reforms that offer them stability�they want to know they will always have health care (note: this does better than discussing affordability, which sparks distrust);
• 3. Insurance companies remain the villains, but the public is not certain whether insurers support the reforms. We need to be clear that insurers are against the reforms and have subsidized expensive advertising efforts to bring reform down;
• 4. Show how legislative actions do work on behalf of everyday Americans�for example making COBRA more affordable for those who have lost their jobs;
• 5. Speak about health reform in ways that demonstrate it has been a long time in the making�much of what is in the Senate bill has been endorsed by past presidents from Nixon to Clinton.

Advocates need to address the trust issue and help members of Congress who support reform earn trust from their constituents. "It's tempting for elected officials to look at these obstacles and want to walk away from the healthcare issue. That would be an enormous mistake�looking at the amount of cynicism out there, it's absolutely critical to walk away from this battle with an accomplishment. . . .This issue is a major opportunity for Congress to rebuild its credibility on fighting for the middle class, and taking on unpopular (and powerful) corporate interests. Doing that, and focusing on the ways in which we're going to provide stability for the middle class while working to make coverage more affordable is critical." (Anzalone Liszt)