Exchange Picks New Name: Covered California

The California Health Benefit Exchange board voted Tuesday to adopt a new name for the health insurance coverage it will offer starting January 2014 — Covered California.

The decision comes after months of work. In August, the long list of potential names was winnowed to about a dozen possible names — including CaliHealth, CalAccess, Wellquest, PACcess and Covered California. The list alos included unusual trademark names such as Ursa, Healthifornia, Eureka, Beneficia, Cal-Vida and Condor, as well as the crowd favorite, Avocado.

After designing logos, holding focus group meetings and running trademark searches, that list was cut down to four finalists in September: Ursa, Eureka, CaliHealth and Covered California. Trademark concerns emerged around Ursa and CaliHealth, and those names were dropped, said Chris Kelly, who made the final name presentation to the exchange board.

Kelly presented final logo designs to the board for Covered California (tagline: “Your destination for affordable healthcare”), a related-but-separate design for Covered, CA and Eureka (“Where California discovers affordable healthcare”). After gauging the final set of focus group opinions, Kelly said the recommendation to the board was to go with Covered California.

Eureka was seen by focus groups as more of a private insurance program, Kelly said. Covered California was particularly well-liked by the Latino population in the focus groups, and by almost two-thirds of respondents overall.

“We’re looking for a brand consumers can relate to, and inspire them to enroll in health care in the exchange,” said Oscar Hidalgo, director of communication and public affairs at the exchange. “This is a real pivot point for us, using that brand and tagline and logo for future campaigns to help consumers relate to our mission. We’re still working on a few other things to complement that, and that should be done by the next exchange board meeting.” 

The next steps, Kelly said, are to secure the final trademark and finalize the logo and tagline, which should be done by Nov. 12. Those final designs should be ready for the next exchange board meeting, he said, on Nov. 14.