California Blues markets a hipper health plan to young adults

The state medical association says the new products could be unfair to physicians and leave young adults with unanswered questions.

By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Jan. 17, 2005.

WellPoint subsidiary Blue Cross of California is trying to persuade young adults ages 19 to 29 that having health insurance is not only smart and affordable, but as cool and trendy as iPods, cell phones with video screens, and a working knowledge of poker.

The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company's new suite of PPO products for the individual market, collectively dubbed Tonik, is intended to attract young people who are essentially healthy and haven't felt a need for insurance, think it's too expensive or just don't understand what coverage is all about.

The insurance products themselves are similar to existing Blue Cross offerings, but the jazzed-up advertising is designed to conjure an image light years away from the usual sober insurance marketing.

But the emphasis on style, says the California Medical Assn., might be ignoring major matters of substance. First, the association says, features of the new coverage will be more burdensome to physicians, who will face more intensive money collection and billing than with most existing policies, and will have no say in the matter. Second, the association says, the details and potential shortcomings of the plan might still be unclear to young buyers, despite Blue Cross's attempt to speak to them in what it sees as their own language.

Blue Cross began targeting the young population late last year with slick ads in sports magazines, billboards and Web sites. The insurer is promoting the new product using what it appears to believe is the casual language of a new generation of hipsters -- one they think is grudgingly willing to pay a modest sum for health coverage but wanting to be convinced it's worth the money.