MEDIA HIT HIGHLIGHTS NOVEMBER 2015

BY THE NUMBERS  In November, NAHU received more than 711 press hits.  In October, NAHU received more than 739 press hits.  So far in 2015, NAHU has received 6,638 press hits.  In 2014, NAHU received more than 7,600 press hits.

PRINT MEDIA IN NOVEMBER “Jessica Waltman, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), said “it is critical that issuers have the ability to innovate when it comes to quality initiatives, and that quality improvement standards should incent that innovation, not hinder it.“ Quality initiatives should encourage value-based designs such as accountable care organizations that have been developed under the ACA, Waltman said. "A lot of clients tell me they are really focused on the premium," says Craig Gussin, a San Diego-based insurance broker and vice president of public affairs for the California Association of Health Underwriters. Gussin offers an insider tip: "If the premium for your plan dropped [for 2016], the out-of-pocket costs probably went up," he says. "The devil is in the details." "Doing a group insurance plan is a lot more labor intensive for people like me to put in than it is to do an individual plan," he said. "It's going to take several hours to create a group health insurance plan when it takes 15, 20, maybe 30 minutes to do an individual plan." Kelly Fristoe, a health underwriter at Financial Partners, said agents are frustrated throughout Texas because there are more clients than time left in the year. In all, he said, there are about 480,000 BCBS policies that are affected by the PPO-to-HMO conversion. “Thomas M. Harte, an insurance agent in Hampstead, N.H., and a former president of the National Association of Health Underwriters, said that New Hampshire residents had clearly benefited from the Affordable Care Act in some ways. In 2014, he said, insurance was available from only one carrier, Anthem. But now, he said, consumers also have several additional choices, including Harvard Pilgrim and the nonprofit cooperative insurance plans based in Maine and Massachusetts. “Anthem is reducing its premiums,” Mr. Harte said. “Other plans are fighting for market share..” “I've had a number of 'young invincibles' who just don't want to spend the money on coverage and don't care about the penalty," said Robert Slayton, a Naperville, Ill.-based health insurance broker.” “Proponents of a single-payer healthcare system for Colorado have a worthy goal — to deliver universal health coverage. Unfortunately, single-payer’s track record abroad reveals that substandard care, long waiting lists, and rationing are endemic to such systems.” Janet Trautwein, Washington, D.C. The writer is executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters.

SOUND BYTES IN NOVEMBER NAHU recently began its National Radio tour on open enrollment where our Vice President of Government Affairs, Marcy Buckner, has been interviewed on the a few nationally syndicated radio stations: Sirius XM Satellite Radio – “POTUS 'Morning Briefing’” Show with host Tim Farley.Sirius XM Satellite Radio – “POTUS 'Morning Briefing’” Show with host Tim Farley. KCMX – 880 AM in Oregon – Listen to the first and second half of a two-part open enrollment interview from the “Sunrise with Craig” Show with host Craig Fronek. Part OnePart Two WYOO – FM in Panama City, Florida – The Derrell Day Show with host Derrell DayWYOO – FM California AHU Vice President of Public Affairs Craig Gussin appeared on three broadcast segments with Good Morning San Diego - KUSI News to discuss Covered California's open enrollment. Please view one of his clips here:three broadcast segments

POPULAR NOVEMBER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS Twitter Facebook

NOVEMBERUPDATE: SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN  Since its launch in January, NAHU's new social media campaign has tremendously increased our social media presence, numbers and viewership on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We are excited to share November’s analytics indicating the campaign's great progress.November’s analytics  Twitter:  In November, your profile was visited 1,546 times.  NAHU gained 188 followers percent more than what it gained in October.  NAHU’s tweets were seen on average 1,600 times per day.  Facebook:  NAHU’s posts reach, on average, 2,214 unique individuals each day -- a 15 percent increase over October's average.  NAHU’s posts were liked, on average, 13 times and shared 5 times per day this month.  One of NAHU’s posts about getting enrolled reached more than 1,500 people and garnered 60 clicks and 15 shares.  Campaigns:  Links to NAHU’s webinars have been clicked 200 times.  Links to NAHU’s Find a Broker tool have been clicked more than 291 times. *Key Terms: The engagement rate for a tweet is the number of users who clicked, favorited, shared, or replied to a tweet as a percentage of the number of users who saw the tweet. The engagement rate in the report is the average engagement rate for all of NAHU’s tweets in the given month. The reach on Facebook is the number of different people who see any of NAHU’s content -- whether in their newsfeed, on NAHU’s profile, or otherwise.

IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA COVERAGE  We often send these clips to policymakers to alert them of the issues we are facing. The more high-profile media coverage we received, the more attention policymakers will pay to our issues.  Media placement means an increased understanding of the issues in the public, both inside and outside the industry.  Media attention increases NAHU name recognition and branding.  We do not pay for our media placements. All coverage received by our members is free business promotion, which promotes NAHU members as subject-matter experts.  Good information and solid sound bytes provided by an NAHU member means other reporters will want to use that member as a resource.