Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Wednesday downplayed the significant challenges facing Obamacare as “bumps” in the road, and spoke optimistically about her agency’s ability to enroll the younger, healthier people that are needed to keep the program in the black.
Obamacare is about to enter its fourth enrollment season, which Burwell said was a rich, new opportunity to reach the millions of people who are still not insured under the law.
“One of the most important opportunities to strengthen the risk pool is right around the corner,” Burwell said at a Wednesday morning forum for insurers and regulators involved in the state-run insurance marketplaces. “With three years of experience, we’re in a position to mount a more targeted, data-driven outreach than ever before.”
But the administration has been under pressure to defend the law this year, as many insurers have announced they’re hiking rates dramatically or dropping out entirely for the 2017 enrollment season that begins in less than a month. That has left parts of some states with just one Obamacare insurer, and left people with higher-than-expected rate hikes.
Burwell and other officials have stressed that the transition to the marketplaces was never going to be smooth, as they’ve tried to reassure people that they can still find affordable coverage through the use of federal subsidies.
“Of course we’ve also encountered bumps along the way,” Burwell said. “This is a transition year, and transitions always present challenges, but they also present opportunities. Today what we want to focus on is how we use this transition year to build an even stronger marketplace together.”
