WaPo: Sticker schock ; Attending the OFA ACA Summit; Further thoughts on changes needed.

1) Charles Ornstein ‏@charlesornstein 

MT @igorvolsky: 2 diff stories: 

a)  

NYT: Millions eligible for free policies  

b)   WaPo: Sticker shock 

This second article raises a major problem which I did not fully realize until now. Did not know it would be this bad.  We had no forewarning. I look forward to seeing what the White House has to say about that. 


2)  Commonwealth Fund   Americans’ Experiences in the Health Insurance Marketplaces: Results from the First Month
Informative study. For example, 17% of those eligible visited the marketplaces. 

3)  Yesterday, the White House convened OFA and several other organizations to discuss ACA. I attended the summit as one of the several reps from OFA MD.  Notes from that summit will be posted later.

Here is a brief video that I took of the President speaking.  I was in the second row of the audience so got pretty close up especially when he came around to shake hands with the first row of the audience.  Here is a  Photo  of the President speaking.  Here is a Photo  I took of a number of OFA attendees who participated in a shoot prior to the start of the summit.  People came from all over the U.S.  There is also a
photo  taken by OFA in which I am in the photo but it is very hard to see me in the third row off to the right.

Here is an article from Today's Online Edition of the WashPost on the summit  Obama on health care: ‘I’ve got one more campaign in me … To make sure this law works.’
Did not see in print edition.

The summit was very informative.  Was very impressed by Patrick Deval, MA governor.

There were 9 other organizations that spoke and attended the summit including CAP, Families USA, Enroll America, Planned Parenthood, SEIU, Small Businesses Majority, Young Invincibles, Doctors for America, Healthy America (not sure of last organization's name).  Lots of useful advice from those speakers. The breakout session was quite useful. 

Will provide more notes later

4) Here are a few thoughts that I have that I think the administration needs to take.

Arrange for all 50 states that folks can have access to plan info, including quality ratings, and doctor participation without having to open an account.  Build a separate site if need be.  And do so quickly

Provide some kind of timetable or workplan for the fix for healthcare.gov sometime soon. Same for key states which have their own exchanges and are having problems. Consider having a separate system for Medicaid enrollees, such as using existing Medicaid systems. 

Would like to know what are the most effective ways to increase enrollment. 

Would like to know how can the different organizations work most effectively together in each state.