Last year, which estimated 7 million folks would a role in role. They had no idea that the website would be dysfunctional for two months. With that, we surpasses projections. In role america does not spend a lot of time analyzing projections are weighing out what we think how many people might enroll. We are focused on eating as many people through the door as possible and educating them. I was in the room on monday when i heard secretary burwell talking to the way they approach this estimate. To me, it struck me as thoughtful and pragmatic and analytical. I think that is exactly what they should be doing at this point. It does seem reasonable. Our concern is not exactly what the estimates are of what could happen. Our focus is on who is out there, had we get them the facts so that consumers have the resources they need. In term of signups, was on extended window this year for Health Care Plans in 2014. Do you think there will be an extended sign up window at the beginning of 2016. With that be helpful . Bit of a twoweek extension at the end of the enrollment. That was for folks who had begun the process. Perhaps they will decide to do that again this year. We are really focused on the three month ahead. We want to make sure we maximize every moment. Do you think the administration should extend it. . With the holidays, the winter, it is ill suited to doing what they have to do, to get 3 Million People signed up in a threemonth window. That is worth considering for future enrollment periods. It is a busy time. It is in the midst of the holidays. That does provide some challenges for groups like an role america. We often think about the threemonth enrollment. Outreach around this next enrollment frame as soon as the previous enrollment frame ended. We have doing this work for many months. These are the three months that we have to get folks three through through the door. Leadership since last year and a department. Im wondering since you have observed her management style, how would you describe that compared with her predecessors . Do you think she is a better leader . Secretary civilians and secretary burwell are two women i have tremendous respect for. An anoung woman who is in executive position, i think there is a lot to admire about both of them. Meretary burwell has struck in the meetings ive had with her that her focus is on management, focus on getting to the specifics about how we make sure that this is a successful enrollment. I think she is a great leader. I also thought secretaries of bilious was a great leader. Secretary sibelius was a great leader as well. You think that youd need to do more next year to make sure or do you think this is to be expected . Aidarly on, when that million number was out there, there was a lot of criticism who said those mains of people are not paying for their plans. They suggested that it was going to be far fewer than 7. 1 million. I think this is part of the natural process. Folks that are starting, injuring the Insurance Market for the first time who perhaps have not had Health Insurance, there was always expected to be dropoff. It is an important opportunity for all of us doing this work it is not just about making sure folks in role. We want to make sure they maintain that coverage. This is where there is an Important Role of Health Insurance literacy. How do we help consumers to choose the plan that is best for them. Also to help for them how to use that plan. That is the best way to make sure that they maintain that coverage. That an rolehing america has made a priority in the past few months. A lot of different organizations are doing the same thing. We know that the Obama Administration is focused on raising enrollment among latinos. There is a problem communicating with this population. Many people speak spanish and feel if they were to enroll in the exchanges, some of the relatives who might not be in the country legally could be deported. Our sure group communicating with this population and heavy change your tactics and or . The latino population is the really important part of our focus and outreach. Who gainedok at coverage in that last enrollment. A disparity gap, they still are at the top. This is an important part of the work we do. The most effective way to reach this population is to have a presence in communities, to empower trusted voices to get the word out to latino consumers and make sure that it is not just about advertisements, but it is about leaders and Small Business owners and local elected officials and Community Health centers spreading the word. Approach from the start, and we are doubling down on that, is to empower the trusted voices to let folks know that you dont have to worry about that. This is about getting you and your family affordable coverage. Weve seen a lot of success with that. Holdingkend, we will be over 20 Different National latino enrollment assignments across the country. It is very communitybased. It will be in communities with high concentrations of the uninsured, particularly within the latino community, to bring these groups together and bring them the facts. How are groups like an role america going to be communicating . We know a lot of uninsured consumers have a big information gap. The most effective message we found to reach consumers is to talk about the Financial Assistance available. Last year, of those that are rolled in coverage, 85 of them got financial help. This is also the thing that most uninsured consumers know of is available. That is always going to be where we are focusing our messaging. Finds, that of the is something we will communicate to consumers. Part of that to me is about delivering the facts to folks. All the controversy around the Affordable Care act, it has been hard for every day folks to get the basics about what this means for them, the opportunities and consequences. That will be part of what we communicate with consumers. It is a fact they should know. We were always start the conversation with these really great opportunities that are available to them. We talk about the about theies, what Supreme Court taking d ling with the tax credits. If youre talking to somebody who is looking to enroll and concerned about the Supreme Court case, what are you telling them . Im glad you frame the question that way. That is the most important thing. As we are headed into this enrollment. , what does it mean for consumers . Nothing has changed for consumers. There are many people who have gotten Financial Assistance. Enrollment frame, there are millions of people who have not enrolled. We are making sure that consumers have the peace of mind to know that this is there for them. Yearsing up to last open enrollment. , we saw white house officials and Administration Officials crisscrossing the country, touting the exchanges. It is very quiet on both of those fronts this year. Take adering if you can more active role in marketing the exchanges . We communicate and coordinate with the administration a number of other groups. They have demonstrated a lot of commitment to enroll america. We are talking about having a presence in the community, working with local elected officials and local celebrities we may not see here in washington, d. C. My understanding is that we will see a lot more out of them on the National Level in the few months. I think we can expect a lot there. We will get the word out. I will also say that we go back to the point of that there are millions of people who did not enroll in the first enrollment. There is a Massive Campaign to get the word out. If that is the case, if they did not know what was available to them then, they need to be thinking about ways to communicate to them. We found that more often than not that that is happening on the local level. It is not about a big national campaign. A presence building in communities, getting trusted voices out there, partnering with local tv stations. That is something that is harder to track at the National Level. That is how we reach the consumers that need this information and to take the steps to enroll. One of the issues that does seem to be coming up as people who even if they do find out about the tax credits that are available, they are finding that it is out of reach for them. They are somewhere in between, with the tax credit is a discount, and they are committing the income to other things. Is them Health Insurance available, but they arent paying for because they dont perceive it to be affordable. Is there an argument out there that there should be cheaper available to people. One of the big issues that we were facing before the Affordable Care act was that consumers that had plans that were maybe credit affordable and they seem at a great deal, and then something what wrong, and it turned out the plans did not cover what they thought it would. That was a major issue for a lot of americans. Part of what the aca is trying to do is address that. The requirements out there for insurance plans to make sure that you will not be in that position is really to the benefit of consumers. This is the first year that the exchanges will be enrolling as well as reenrolling consumers, you expressed this week that that was a concern for you, how local groups will message to people about the difference. What advice are you giving to them . What is it that you are nervous about . The main thing is that this year we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. That is how we like to talk about it. We need to get the word out to means of people who did not enroll the first time. To reacharder population than those that we were in touch with last year. On the other hand, we need to help those that enrolled last your make sure they have the facts they need to renew their coverage. I think it is easy when you are doing this work to stumble on that, to think how does our messaging need to be fundamentally different between this two audiences. From enroll americas perspective, it does not need to be different. We are encouraging Partner Organizations to use a simple framework, get covered, stay covered, that helps all consumers the matter what category they fit in. You should check out the Financial Assistance available to you. That is true for those enrolling for the first time, and also important for those renewing coverage. We know that if theyre in that perhapsanged they are eligible for a different amount of Financial Assistance. For everybody, that is the first of you should take. Then you have the chance to shop around for plans. Again, that is true for those that are enrolling for the first time, but for those that are a 25 ng, there are increase and the number of Insurance Companies offering plans on the marketplace this year. For folks that have coverage, they might even find a better option. The third step is to choose your plan and enroll. If you are happy with the plan you have, if you like a different one, you can do that as well. When you frame it that way, it helps people understand that we can actually talk about this in a way that does not confuse consumers, the does not complicate things, and that is where something on the back in is a public it a policy issued where we are encouraging people that how we share information with consumers stay straightforward. You may have Better Options at one of the things we reported this week is that the influx of new carriers, which is a good thing for competition, and the desire to offer lower prices to undercut bigger carriers, especially having an effect on consumers, it would be that premiums increase in the substance the subsidy goes down. Its not just a question of getting a better option. If they dont come back to the site, they will be worse off than they were before. Is that a concern for you . That may be possible for some consumers. Yourback, check at options, make sure you update your information, and look at what is available to you. The reality is that it is fundamentally good news for consumers that more Insurance Companies are offering plans for them. There are more options for consumers. That is than their best interest. Health officials have touted their improvements to healthcare. Gov. Streamlinedore application process. Have you gone to the application yourself . And they previewed it for you . What can you tell us about the changes . I have seen a preview. Thing that was noticeable for me is that is a much more streamlined application. Sometimes consumers went through the process and they would have to reenter information that they entered a few screens back. This year, it looks a little bit different for different consumers because the application process is built to accommodate your specific situation. For a lot of consumers, they will see the number of screens reduced from 76 down to 16. That speaks to how much more streamlined this is, how much more userfriendly it is. The other thing to know is that we always talk about the website, how userfriendly that is, we found that a lot of consumers really want in person assistance, no matter how userfriendly that website is. That is something i want to make sure we dont lose track of. Assistancen person prepared to assist him with the process. In person assistant and enrollment groups had a lot riding on the website the president said that was nobody was angrier than he was. Of people onlot the ground who were also angry. Our people this year confident that things will be better and their hard work will you be backed up by technology that works . Yes, folks feel good about where we stand. We expect that there may be some glitches. When you are headed into a big threemonth. Like this, whether it is about technology, how its going to come together on the ground, the reality is that anything this big end this important is going to have some bugs along the way. The coalition is ready for that. I will say that last year in october and november, when the website was not functioning well, it was incredibly frustrating. We also knew that there was a lot that we could do regardless. There was a lot of outrage that needed to happen to consumers. That this wasnt thats where we really learned that this is not about you get someone the information and they are ready to sit down and fill out the application and its a onetime conversation the reality is it takes a lot of contact and followup. Year,g thing for us last even in that worstcase scenario, where the website was not working, you have plenty to do. We have confidence that the website would come back and that as long as it did, we would have consumers ready to go to the process. You bring that same perspective to the next few months. Of course you are not expecting anything of that level, but we will be prepared if there are any problems along the way. Is the website around this time around with the new enrollment and the reenrollment yes. That is an area that we have worked to expand capacity for the website so that if there are most more folks coming through. Last year they really spent several days testing. Im wondering about enroll americas efforts apart from the outreach, digital advertisements. Can you tell us how the strategy has changed this year . I have focused a lot mentioned the growing number of partners we have. Maintain our direct to consumer outreach, but we also wanted to double down in the work to support other groups. I mentioned the rolling list of partners in our coalition. We also worked to develop tools that could help consumers and also help other organizations. A great example of this is our get covered connector, which is basically a tool that they can or callo to our website our local hotline where they can schedule unemployment on the spot. They can find the in person assistance available. Instead of having to look it up long list of the sisters, they connection he find the available women that is closest to them and scheduled on the spot. Best practiceon a that we saw in North Carolina last year where they had a lot of success. It is a great tool for consumers. It is also a great tool for the groups that are doing work on this. It allows the coalition of inperson the sisters to really pool their resources. They can really function as one unit. Of ais one great example tool that we really focused on developing. It certainly helps the work of enroll america. Its army helps consumers. It also helps other organizations to be even more effective and efficient in their own work. Just a minute or two left. We have the last question. I want to come back to the Supreme Court case. Part of the law is headed to the Supreme Court. I relies you are in a different capacity i wonder if you envision that the opposition would be so sustained in specific, going after a different piece each time, with some success in chipping away pieces. It is certainly true that opponents of the law have not slowed down in their efforts. It is amazing how much they have sustain that effort. What strikes me is that in the face of that, in the face of all the controversy, in the face of the confusion that can come out of that, over 16 million americans since last year when the open enrollment began, they enrolled in coverage to the marketplace, medicaid, and chip area that is in a norm us statement about the power of the aca. To me there is nothing stronger than that reality. That truth is what motivates us and the work that we do and allows us to get the word out to more consumers as we go forward. We are out of time. Thank you for being on newsmaker this week. Thank you. My pleasure. Back with our reporters. I will start with you about the expectations being played here. Some of her comments about where the bar is being set. We are hearing lowered expectations from the Obama Administration. That said, one of the things they seem to be overlooking is of the people that picked plans 7year, only sell million have coverage. On the expectation gains. A quote from Marsha Blackburn