The story of catherine sibeliuss resignation is top of most news organizations news items. A wellregarded former governor of the state of kansas. She is leaving after months of intense criticism over the botched rollout in the fall of the insurance marketplace. Doing the firestorm, president obama made clear to his aides that he would not seek the resignation of the health secretary. Joining us to break this down is john sullivan. Thank you for being with us is morning. Guest thank you for having me. One of the things is interesting is this caught democrats on capitol hill by surprise. Obama kept within a closeknit circle. Republicans have been calling for her resignation for months waiting dating back to the troubled rollout of the healthcare law last fall, as you mentioned. It seemed like obama was going to stick with her. She has been around for just about five years. It is something that caught people outside of the immediate orbit of the white house by surprise. As we have seen fr
Being proposed in one state or another so even though it seems we just got through a few weeks ago, insurers are already proposing their rates for the department of insurance for the coming year. What we are going to try to do today with the help of a group of panelists with analytical firepower is to help explain what those numbers mean and what importance we should place on them. One fact i would like you to keep in mind is most of the members you will be hearing referred to policies in whats called the individual market and in the year 2012 about 19 Million People were covered in that market out of the 267 on the elderly americans who have coverage from all sources. As interesting as this discussion will be remembered that it applies to about 7 of americans with coverage. We are pleased to have the Commonwealth Fund a century old philanthropy to establish a commonwealth and we are pleased to have as the moderator the Vice President for federal and state Health Policy somebody with a
Bettys story is one that can be repeated 2 million times every single year across the country. They went bankrupt. They lost their house. They lost their car. They lost their savings simply because their son had the misfortune of being diagnosed during a twoweek period in which they did not have insurance. Was not that they got dropped from coverage, their problem is they could not find any coverage, and the story can be told millions of times over. And i guess my confidence that in the end while this is a disruption to a large section of the economy, my confidence that in the end there are going to be far, far more winners than losers, is rooted in part in connecticut by shakespeare and. We have an exchange that is up and working. In the first month of the exchange, we have hit 10 of our evenll enrollment goal, given the fact that the massachusetts connector, who is run by the same guy who was running connecticuts exchange in the first month only so 0. 3 of total enrollment signup. So
Covered next year when obamacare outlaws your policy. The president put secretary sebelius in charge of this law. I have called on her to resign. Ca couldhe internet, r tell you every day how many records elvis was selling, mcdonalds could tell you how many hamburgers were sold. , resident issa congressman issa posted notes are you are telling each other how many people are enrolling in obamacare, why wont you tell the American People . Thisenator has described law as an approaching train wreck. My grandfather was a record engineer in kansas a railroad engineer and kansas. He drove the locomotive and headed into the right direction, that is what our country needs to do. Turn the law around and headed in the right direction. Obamacare is the wrong direction, it expands a Delivery System that we already knew costs too much. The right direction is more choices, more competition that lowers cost so americans can afford to buy insurance. Expect republicans to show up with our version of a 3
It done. What didator tavenner, the administration anticipates would be the pattern, of enrollment, prior, what were you thinking prior to the launch of thinkcare. Gov, and do you the early problems you had are moing to affect the longter pattern in enrollment . We assumed we would be able to enroll folks throughout the six months, but that that greatest surge would come in december, because we got there were people who wanted coverage on january 1 and the second search would come late february, early march, by the individuals who were not as motivated to get insurance. Figures, butment they were lower for october him and i think they will be low, and it follows the massachusetts experience, and that was part of the reason for such a long and rome at period such a long Enrollment Period in the first year. And you have time to get these problems fixed . I think we have time. We agreed that the problems of the website are unacceptable, but our experience in massachusetts suggests it migh