Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell insisted Friday that the Affordable Care Act is still working well, despite the “growing pains” seen in some parts of the country.
“It’s become a yearly ritual: As the Affordable Care Act continues to settle into place, inevitable growing pains get portrayed by critics as doom for health reform,” she wrote in an op-ed published on CNN’s website. “This year, we’re seeing it again.”
Even supporters of President Obama’s healthcare law are worried about premium hikes and less competition in the marketplaces, where enrollment is scheduled to begin Nov. 1. Burwell’s op-ed is an effort to counter that narrative, as the Obama administration seeks to convince more people to sign up during the law’s fourth enrollment season.
Burwell argued that even though there has been some negative news lately about the law, it’s important to remember how bad the U.S. healthcare system was before it was passed. Insurers used to be able to deny coverage to patients with chronic conditions and plans were often too expensive for many consumers buying on the individual market, she noted.
Insurers are hiking premiums in the marketplaces more than in previous years, by more than 50 percent in some states. But Burwell argued that premiums are still 12-20 percent lower than the Congressional Budget Office predicted at the time the law was passed.
“Even with this year’s proposed rate changes, consumers will likely pay less next year than they would have if rates had come in and grown as CBO predicted,” Burwell wrote.
Burwell also argued that opponents of the law, presumably congressional Republicans who have tried repeatedly to repeal it, should work to improve affordability by increasing federal subsidies or introducing a government-paid “public option” plan in places with limited competition.
