美国国家公共电台 NPR With ACA Plans A Tougher Sell, Insurers Bring On The Puppies

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Starting tomorrow, people can purchase health insurance for 2018 on the Affordable¹ Care Act's marketplace. Republican efforts to scrap² the law are causing a lot of confusion for people. And the Trump³ administration has dramatically cut money for outreach. In a moment, we'll hear how an insurer in Florida is trying to reach out to Latinos. First, Will Stone from member station KJZZ reports on an Arizona group trying to reach millennials.

WILL STONE, BYLINE⁴: Diane Brown's careful to steer⁵ clear of politics when giving her pitch on health care.

DIANE BROWN: I'm not going to talk about the good, the bad of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.

STONE: But that can prove difficult when it's basically the reason she's here at a community college east of Phoenix⁶.

BROWN: Health insurance is affordable. I think there's a lot of misnomers⁷ that are out there.

STONE: She says she hears the Affordable Care Act is dead, or no insurance plans are available. Neither is true. Brown heads the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, part of a grassroots coalition⁸ advertising⁹ open enrollment¹⁰. These days, that means cutting through the confusion.

BROWN: And, again, we really encourage you to help spread the word through your student organizations, through your personal networks. If you...

STONE: She's speaking to students today to get the message to the coveted¹¹ but difficult-to-reach millennials. They tend to be healthier and less expensive. And insurance pools need them to help pay for older and sicker people. But the Trump administration has slashed¹² this year's outreach budget for the ACA. At the end of her presentation, one student raises his hand. What happens to pre-existing conditions?

BROWN: Great question. Pre-existing conditions are still covered.

STONE: His name is Edward Wilkins - 23 years old. He and his mother have coverage¹³ through the ACA. And her recent cancer diagnosis¹⁴ has him worried about the law's fate.

EDWARD WILKINS: I know insurance is going to be more expensive for next year for sure.

STONE: Ask him why he thinks that, and he brings up the decision to cut off certain subsidies¹⁵ to insurers.

WILKINS: I think I heard recently about Trump actually signed something about getting rid of that.

STONE: And he's right that the president did cut off some payments to insurers. But that is a different impact, depending on where you live. In Arizona, rates are virtually unchanged. Marcus Johnson is with Vitalyst Health Foundation, one of the nonprofits leading Arizona's ACA outreach effort.

MARCUS JOHNSON: Arizona could be given the award for most improved right now. In past years, we have seen rate hikes. But this year, we're actually seeing a significant stabilization¹⁶ of the marketplace.

STONE: And many people will also get a subsidy¹⁷. But making sure young people know that requires going to them, Johnson says.

JOHNSON: We are doing a lot of outreach efforts to schools, to colleges, to community colleges to make sure that people at least are aware of the options that are available.

STONE: The stakes are even higher because in most states, enrollment only lasts for six weeks. For NPR News, I'm Will Stone in Phoenix.

SAMMY MACK, BYLINE: I'm Sammy Mack in Miami. And here, part of the game plan for Penny Shaffer is puppies.

PENNY SHAFFER: Ah, the puppies.

MACK: Shaffer is the South Florida regional market president for Florida Blue, which ensures about a million people through healthcare.gov.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Spanish).

MACK: The puppies she's referring to are tumbling around in this YouTube commercial, while the announcer pitches affordable plans and personalized service.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Spanish).

MACK: According to a Commonwealth¹⁸ Fund analysis, Hispanics have seen the biggest drop in uninsurance rates of any ethnic¹⁹ group since the Affordable Care Act was passed. One zip code in the heart of Cuban Miami saw the most marketplace sign-ups in the country a couple of years ago. Florida Blues²⁰ got a lot of potential customers here. But first, they have to reach them. Enter the really stinking-cute puppies perfect for sharing on the internet.

SHAFFER: It's hard to resist puppies, right? Let's just be honest.

MACK: Shaffer says Florida Blue is also promoting the ACA by leaning on its experiences from the first years of the insurance marketplaces, when the company worked with community organizations and got the word out at events like health fairs.

SHAFFER: We're doing it again. We will literally²¹ have thousands of seminars across the state to make sure that people understand it's still the law of the land.

MACK: And, Shaffer says, Florida Blue has a responsibility to help people understand what it is they're being told to buy.

SHAFFER: Particularly down here, you have a changing population every year who don't have the relationship to the U.S. health system until they've come here and become citizens and such.

MACK: Florida Blue is spending about the same in marketing²² as last year. But, Shaffer says, they expect to spend more dollars in heavily Hispanic South Florida, where there's a big, competitive market - so more puppies in Miami.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Spanish).

MACK: For NPR News, I'm Sammy Mack. And that story is part of a reporting partnership²³ with NPR, local member stations and Kaiser Health News.

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

6 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

7 misnomers   

n.使用不当的名字或名称( misnomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

9 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

10 enrollment   

n.注册或登记的人数；登记

参考例句：

• You will be given a reading list at enrollment.注册时你会收到一份阅读书目。
• I just got the enrollment notice from Fudan University.我刚刚接到复旦大学的入学通知书。

11 coveted   

adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图

参考例句：

• He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
• Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

14 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

15 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 Stabilization   

稳定化

参考例句：

• The position of barycentre on plane directly impacts the stabilization and manipulation of plane. 飞机重心位置直接影响飞机的稳定和操纵特性。
• With the higher olefins, stabilization of the energetic intermediates occurs more easily. 在较高的烯烃情况下，高能的中间物稳定作用更易出现。

17 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

18 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

19 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

20 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

21 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

22 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

23 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。