For the second time, the highest court in the land has upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, and that gives us a chance to chart a new course.
The ACA has delivered results that matter to people. It is working to improve access, affordability and the quality of health care.
And both stories and data show: It’s working.
As I travel the country, I hear stories of people whose lives have been changed, and even saved, because they have health insurance, in many cases for the first time.
In fact, today, more than 10 million Americans have quality, affordable health insurance through the marketplaces the ACA established. And because of that, they now have tools to keep themselves healthy, and can enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will be covered if they get sick.
In the last five years, we have reduced the number of uninsured by 16.4 million, down to the lowest rate in decades.
But the Affordable Care Act is about more than just getting people covered. It has strengthened the health insurance of almost every American, including insurance they may get from their employer.
People with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage or charged higher premiums. Critical preventive services, like immunizations and certain cancer screenings, are available at no out-of-pocket cost. Parents can keep their children up to age 26 on their policies, so young Americans can stay in school or find their first job without having to worry about health insurance. And women can’t be charged higher premiums just because of their gender.
As the President recently said, the ACA “is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another. This is health care in America.”
I sincerely hope that this week’s Supreme Court decision will push us to do what I believe Americans want: to focus on substance and turn to building on the progress we have made. When it comes to health care, we have common interests.
It’s time to move forward. We need to help the newly insured understand their insurance to get the most out of it and find the right doctor.
We need to do more to encourage the newly insured, as well as those who have had insurance for years, to take advantage of the preventive care made possible by the ACA — from well-baby visits to vaccinations to cancer screenings — so they stay healthy and cut the costs of care for themselves and taxpayers.
I believe that by building on the ACA’s tools, we have the opportunity to transform our health care system in unprecedented ways. At HHS, we have a vision of a better system, and I believe making that vision a reality is one of the single most important challenges of our time — and perhaps the most important opportunity I have as secretary of HHS.
By delivering better care, spending our health dollars in a smarter way and putting patients at the center of their care, we all benefit. Our vision is a system that pays providers for what works and incentivizes quality care over quantity of services.
It’s a system that gets patients the right care at the right time and invests in prevention before people get sick. It’s a system that puts information in the hands of patients and their doctors and empowers them to make better choices.
We have set ambitious goals to have Medicare and Medicaid pay providers for how well rather than how much they care for patients.
But there’s much more work to do.
Our nation deserves better than returning to the past. We can seize this opportunity for transformation. And if we’re successful, we’ll leave a legacy of better care and a stronger economy for our children and grandchildren.
Achieving success will require us to work together. The disagreements of the past needn’t define the future we can build today.
Making our health care system better is what the citizens we serve expect, and there’s plenty of common ground to stand on.
