Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Tuesday that the number of uninsured adults had decreased by 26 percent in the last year, rebutting conservative attacks against President Obama’s signature domestic initiative.
“Said another way, 10.3 million fewer adults are uninsured today than in 2013,” Burwell told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “I firmly believe this is the key measure we should all be looking at, because it represents historic progress on an issue that has eluded our country for more than a century.”
The White House insists that the public is gradually warming to Obamacare despite the disastrous rollout of the federal healthcare website. They note that Republicans aren’t as actively campaigning against the largest overhaul to the healthcare system since Medicare, while conservatives counter that Obamacare remains unpopular with many voters.
The administration is pressuring more states to expand Medicaid, as a handful of red-state governors has done recently, saying that the number of uninsured Americans would continue to drop.
Burwell also announced a 25 percent increase in issuers selling health insurance plans in the federal marketplace next year.
However, the administration has much work left to avoid the problems that plagued the first round of open enrollment in Obamacare. They’re still working to determine subsidy eligibility and acknowledge that some consumers will be surprised to learn that their premiums are increasing next year.
