No. 2 at HHS: O-Care at a ‘turning point’

The second-in-command at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Monday that President Obama’s signature healthcare law has hit a “turning point” in the century-old battle to provide universal coverage to all Americans.

“To say that we are in the middle of a historic moment is no exaggeration,” Deputy Secretary Bill Corr said in the keynote address to the AcademyHealth nonprofit health policy group.

He highlighted the 10 million people who gained healthcare under ObamaCare, as well as the 7.5 million who have signed up or re-enrolled in healthcare plans in 2015.

“These numbers are a big deal,” he said, adding that the enrollment tallies will only keep growing.

“This is the part of the speech where I’m required to tell you that open enrollment ends on February 15,” he joked.

Before ObamaCare, Corr said the country’s healthcare system was too expensive, too inaccessible and too unreliable. He pointed to the millions of people who could lose their insurance at any point because of “flimsy plans” and an overall lack of protections.

“But now, after a century of failed attempts at healthcare reform, we hit a turning point in the Affordable Care Act,” Corr declared.

He also touted insurance reforms that mean people can no longer be dropped from their plans or kept out of plans because of pre-existing conditions.

He added that healthcare providers have also been asked to improve care, in part because HHS has created new incentives. Nearly 90 percent of Medicare fee-for-service payments will be tied to value, instead of volume, by 2018.

While Corr called reforms under ObamaCare “a good start,” he added that it’s not enough.  

“For the sake of our health, our wallets, and our economy, we need to go further,” he said.