• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Nonprofit advocacy group Inseparable has launched a $250,000 paid ad campaign in support of “Care That’s Fair,” described as a push to end insurance industry practices that “systematically deny, delay, and limit Americans’ access to mental health care.”

“The campaign’s message centers on a simple idea: Mental health care should be easy to get and easy to afford,” Inseparable tells Marketing Daily.

“Every year, insurance companies make more and more money by denying us the mental health care we need,” declares a :60 hero video on CareThatsFair.com. “While our families struggle, premiums increase, profits increase, but access to care doesn't. We deserve better.”

The website includes a petition “calling on policymakers to hold insurance companies accountable and ensure mental health care is treated like health care.”

Paid ads have begun running in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, with a :15 pre-roll before videos on such platforms as Facebook and  Instagram. “Video ads will introduce audiences to our campaign and then we’ll follow up with a series of static ads to drive petition signatures,” Inseparable says.

Connected TV is also in the media mix, which along with campaign creative, influencer marketing and press outreach, is being handled through strategic communications firm Orchestra.

While the ads are running in just three states right now, a 15-state legislative push is on the way -- with advertising to follow in those other 12 states, according to Inseperable.

“Care That’s Fair” is targeting its audience “primarily by issue engagement,” the nonprofit relates, “with a core audience of health and mental health advocates.”

The goal: “grow that audience and mobilize people to take action at the state and federal levels.”

The campaign follows the release of Inseparable focus group research conducted by Meeting Street Insights this February and March, involving a focus group of 78 participants across the political spectrum in the swing states of Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and Pennsylvania. When asked to describe health insurance companies in a single word or phrase, only one person had anything positive to say, with the rest using terms like “greedy,” “complicated,” “crooks,” and “bait and switch.”

The six-figure ad budget for “Care That’s Fair” doesn't approach, at least not yet, the seven-figure total that Inseparable spent last year on “Medicaid is Mental Health,” a national campaign THAT sought to protect Medicaid from Congressional cuts.

Inseparable, which focuses solely on mental health advocacy, launched in 2020 as America struggled to address mental health needs amid the pandemic.

Since then, the nonprofit says, "more than 100 state mental health bills have passed with Inseparable’s support, including 22 health insurance-specific policy wins across 10 states that improve access to care.”