Do we ask everyone to turn on their cameras . Were getting ready to get started. The hearing will come to order. I welcome everybody to this hybrid hearing. Both ranks member mr. Hysse and myself have wanted to have hearings resume in person especially when we are in session. I made a promise that i would fight for that, and today is the fruit of that effort. I believe when were in session protecting everybody, those who are not comfortable or physically cannot join us in the hearings room, are more than welcome to join us through web i no noor. We ask everybody when they were not speaking, to wear a mask. I really appreciate that cooperation of for members appears remotely. House rules require that we see you, so police have your cameras turned on at all times during the course of the hearing. If they can let us you can use the chat function to send a request. And if that doesnt work, you can unmute and seek recognition. These arent ideal circumstances, but we are in the midst of a pa
Questions. Thank you. Chairman issa, Ranking Members cummings, members of the committee, thank you for an opportunity to be here. Cms strives to be as responsive as possible. I understand that we have already provided over 140,000 pages of documents to this committee. Transparency is important and thats why im pleased to be here today and have the opportunity to answer your questions. We will continue to produce documents. In the almost five years that ive had the privilege to work at cms, my focus has been on how we can best serve our beneficiaries, including seniors on medicare, adults and children on medicaid and chip andenrolli marketplace. I work ro to reduce cost, improve quality in ways that make a difference. Were making real and important progress. As of august 15th this year, we have 7. 3 million americans enrolled in the Health Insurance marketplace coverage. These are individuals who have paid their premiums. We are encouraged by the numbers of consumers who have paid their
Of the team to make those decision, its very difficult as a thirdparty partner participant to make that kind of assessment without the actual knowledge and data. As a former businessman, i would say that a site that couldnt accommodate a few hundred people simultaneously signing on and people waiting for weeks or months, security wasnt the reason that that should not have launched, but i appreciate that youre here on security today. The gentlelady from new york, a place where i. T. Comes first for many of her constituents is recognized for five minutes. Thats true, true of the west coast, too. I just want to note that this is the committees 29th hearing on the Affordable Care act and the sixth on the website. Oh, come on, please. I want to focus on some very positive things. And thats the cost growth is slowing to historic lows and that was one of the huge challenges that we confronted k the whole time that ive been in congress, is the just the whopping cost in health care in our coun
Knowing that the upcoming november Enrollment Period is coming for millions of americans, who will be shopping on the exchanges, how prepared are you to take these 28 recommendations and others to assure protection . Yes, maam. Let me start with the 22 technical recommendations. 19 of those have been resolved or mitigated or will be further reviewed prior to open enrollment. So those will be handled. Of the six other recommendations, were in the process of either completing have completed those, or will complete those prior to open enrollment. And based on the 19 that youve identified, miss tavenner, and the remaining measures to implement, you are confident that not only are they implemented, but theyre tested, and will have to the greatest degree i might disagree with some of my colleagues that we can do everything in our power, and those hostile, those negative, those who intend us harm and intend to access that information for their own gain will find ways to do that. I want to mak
District of columbia whose decided to expand medicaid. And obviously, if you look at a lot of independent studies, theres noticeable difference in the states that have decided to expand medicaid, in terms of lowering the number of uninsured. Were going to continue to work with those remaining 20 something, and we meet with them on a regular basis to do what we can to encourage folks to expand. By not participating, arent the states leaving billions of federal dollars on the table that could be used to improve the health of their own citizens . Yes, sir. They are. And its also has economic consequences for those states as well. Of course. Now, recently, some republican governors as youve alluded to who had originally refused to expand medicaid have now reconsidered their original decisions and have submitted Medicaid Expansion plans for cms approval, for instance, in my own state of pennsylvania, as you mentioned, they decided to expand medicaid which will now provide Health Insurance t