Health Care Marketing on Steroids!
Obama-care’s goal is to give more Americans the access to affordable, quality health insurance and to reduce the growth in healthcare spending in the U.S. Everyone is hearing how Obamacare will help the uninsured, the elderly, the economy, etc. But no one is engaging the millennial consumer on their level and showing them how affordable healthcare will benefit them long-term by enrolling now.
Obama’s team is starting to try their hands at other forms of marketing by partnering with some mall chains, websites and other media, but again, President Obama’s team is destined to fail because interrupting consumers’ shopping is neither the appropriate time nor the appropriate venue to market something as unimportant (to them in their lives at this moment) as healthcare. In addition, most forms of internet marketing are too general and non-personal. Internet shopping is primarily for those “looking” for a product or service; not for consumers whom have no interest or at least do not know they have an interest as of yet.
The primary challenge President Obama’s team is facing is they are government employees and not business-minded entrepreneurs. Obama’s team leaders are making the same mistakes most business people make in the golf and health club industries and that is…they think capturing their audience can be done via internet and e-marketing.
Wrong! To successfully launch a new product you must engage in guerilla “membership” marketing. This level of launch demands seasoned veterans and not hackers with rudimentary skills. Just like most club owners; Obama’s team are not industry experts, nor are they experts in membership marketing and even when they hire “experts” these experts are normally “paid” employees and not creative outside-the-box thinking entrepreneurs.
This model needs experts in “membership” marketing, not in healthcare marketing. This program is going to require the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper. This is not a product/service that can be marketed with the “shotgun” approach hoping if you throw enough money into marketing via various media and platforms you are bound to hit some targets. This program needs profiled targets and the expertise in membership marketing to engage them one-on-one.
There are thousands of physicians turning away from traditional business models electing to incorporate a more “member” (patient) based model with huge success. This model is simply an entrepreneurial version of Obama-care except taking the insurance companies and government out of the equation and providing a more personal/tailored service to fewer patients.
MMC® has acquired more than seventy thousand (70,000) golfers for approximately 150 golf courses and hundreds of thousands of members for health clubs and gyms since 1991.
1. Tens of millions of Americans will receive access to affordable health care.
2. It required 10 essential health benefits.
3. It slows the rise of health care costs.
4. It provided coverage for pre-existing conditions.
5. It eliminated coverage limits.
6. It allowed adult children to stay on their parents’ healthcare plans.
7. It offered free care expansion and meaningful subsidies.
8. Millions of people received healthcare insurance for the first time.
9. More routine services are covered under Obamacare.
10. It created savings in prescription drug costs.
1. It was too expensive for many people.
2. Increased Premium Costs.
3. It required coverage for services not required.
4. It required a tax for not participating.
5. It raised income tax rates for high-income earners.
6. It increased wait times at medical clinics.
7. It created fees for pharmaceutical companies.
8. Good health plans would be taxed at high rates.
9. It required an excise tax on medical device manufacturers and importers.
10. Obamacare required an annual enrollment.