HHS Announces New Head of Healthcare.gov

Kevin Counihan, the head of Connecticut's health insurance marketplace, will be the new CEO of healthcare.gov, the website that 36 states use to sell Affordable Care Act insurance, the administration announced at noon today.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tapped Counihan to lead the site as part of a revamped management structure that aims to have the second year of Obamacare run more smoothly than the first.

Access Health CT, under Counihan’s leadership, is one of the more successful state-run exchanges. About 79,000 people signed up for coverage through Connecticut’s exchange, and another 120,000 gained Medicaid coverage. Surveys show that about half the people who gained coverage in the state were previously uninsured.

But taking the reins of healthcare.gov will be a much tougher job. Connecticut has a Democratic governor and legislature, and it embraced the law early, including the expansion of Medicaid. Healthcare.gov serves states that are actively hostile to the law in the Deep South, states that are embracing the law to some degree and states that are active partners in running the exchange.

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Source: Kaiser Health News