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Health
State's New Health Insurance System Gets a Name
Host: Does the name “Covered California” make you think of affordable health insurance? State officials hope so, because they just picked that name for the state's future insurance marketplace, as KQED’s Mina Kim explains.
MINA KIM: State-run insurance exchanges are key to delivering on federal health reform’s promise of affordable health coverage. And California will need millions of individuals and small business owners to sign up by 2015. But would-be participants found the current name -- Health Benefit Exchange -- a turn-off.
CHRIS KELLY: About two-thirds of participants really favored "Covered CA" or "Covered California".
KIM: That’s the Exchange’s senior marketing advisor Chris Kelly.
KELLY: So, yay (laughter).
DIANA DOOLEY: We need some kind of fanfare.
KIM: That’s Board Chair Diana Dooley at the meeting Tuesday, when the board approved the name. It’s the product of two months of statewide focus group research that tested fourteen names, including "Calihealth, " "Eureka," and--ahem--"Avocado."
Why the intensive market research?
HEIDI GANTWERK: They are battling against such a deep lack of understanding of what a health care exchange is.
Heidi Gantwerk is with Viewpoint Learning, which helps agencies communicate complex issues.
Covered California is scheduled to open for health plan registration in October of next year.
