"If we've got some issues, we address them, fix them, and move on. It's really no different than Connecticut."
Kevin Counihan
Kevin Counihan began 2014 as the head of Connecticut's health care marketplace under the Affordable Care Act. Now, he's the head of the entire federal Obamacare effort. WNPR checked in with him recently.
Counihan got national attention because of the success of Access Health CT, the state agency responsible for the implementation of the president's signature health care law. In August, Counihan was picked to run the entire federal insurance marketplace.
"It's really a difference of scale and scope," Counihan said. "The fundamentals of the exchange are the same." He said that more than ten million people got insurance through Obamacare in the first year; the rate of people without insurance dropped; and hospital readmission rates are down.
Counihan said those are worthy goals, but they're not the only ones. "It's really less about a target, in our view, than it is about getting people insured," he said. "As the economy improves, as more employers hire, as more employees get access to employer-sponsored insurance, all of that serves our mission."
Even though there is a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could derail the law, Counihan said he's trying not to pay attention to it.
"If you get too distracted with all the things that could happen," Counihan said, "you could become paralyzed. Our view is, we've got some discrete things we've got to do. We've just got to keep doing the best we can. We're not going to do it perfectly. If we've got some issues, we address them, fix them, and move on. It's really no different than Connecticut."
Open enrollment ends in February.
