Obama to tout ACA’s benefits to rebuild support

President Barack Obama plans to highlight the 2010 health care law’s benefits at a White House event Tuesday that kicks off a three-week campaign to regain support for a program marred by a troubled implementation.

Obama will emphasize the importance of using the newly repaired federal online insurance exchange to enroll Americans in health plans, the White House said in a statement. The site has been plagued by technical flaws since it went live on Oct. 1, keeping tens of thousands of Americans from signing up for medical coverage.

The president is seeking to counter Republican lawmakers’ criticism of the Affordable Care Act over the Healthcare.gov website stumbles and the cancellation notices sent to hundreds of thousands of current policy holders as a result of the law.

Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Monday his panel will be monitoring the law’s roll-out for potential fraud and scams.

“The still-struggling website speaks to the administration’s incompetence in implementing this law and raises serious concerns moving forward,” Upton said in a statement.

Catch-up campaign

The botched start meant the government achieved only a fraction of the 800,000-enrollee target it set through November. The administration’s prediction is 7 million sign-ups for the first year. Open enrollment ends March 31.

The president’s campaign to build public confidence in the law is set to run through Dec. 23, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified discussing internal planning.

The White House also plans a campaign to encourage people to sign up for insurance before Dec. 23, the last day that people who enroll are guaranteed to have medical insurance by Jan. 1.

The initiative will feature daily events, each designed to highlight a different benefit of the law, including preventive care and reduced growth in health-care costs, the official said.

The federal website was hobbled by software errors and overwhelmed by higher-than-anticipated consumer demand after it opened. About 8.6 million people visited the site in the first week, running into long waits that kept many from registering to check out insurance options.

Obama has apologized to the thousands of Americans who lost their medical insurance plans as a result of his health-care law, despite his repeated pledge that people who like their coverage would be able to keep it when the law took effect. On Nov. 14, he promised a one-year reprieve to people facing the loss of coverage, a move that prompted objections from insurers saying that doing so would boost costs.

The administration is weighing whether to increase payments to insurers to offset the added cost of letting people keep medical coverage that otherwise would have been canceled next year, according to a notice posted on the Federal Register Monday.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Healthcare reform
MORE FROM EMPLOYEE BENEFIT NEWS