Kevin Counihan, the head of Connecticut鈥檚 health insurance marketplace, will be the new CEO of healthcare.gov, the website that 36 states use to sell insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the administration announced Tuesday.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tapped Counihan to lead the site as part of a that aims to have the second year of Obamacare run more smoothly than the first.
Kevin Counihan (Photo by Jeff Cohen/WNPR)
Access Health CT, under Counihan鈥檚 leadership, is one of the more successful state-run exchanges. About 257,000 people got coverage, according to the state, including聽 for private insurance. Surveys show that about in the state were previously uninsured.
鈥淥ne of the most important things we did is we showed that government can work,鈥� Counihan said at a press conference in Hartford Tuesday. 鈥淚t can take on a highly complex social program and succeed.鈥�
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 minimal degree and states that are active partners in running the exchange.
At the press conference, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Burwell had called him to discuss Counihan. The governor joked that Counihan should have his head examined for agreeing to go to Washington.
Burwell, in a press release, said that Counihan 鈥渨ill be a clear, single point of contact for streamlined decision-making.鈥� The announced several other hires as well.
Obamacare year 2 starts with enrollment opening on Nov. 15, and the challenges are many. In addition to making sure the technical glitches stay in the rearview mirror, Counihan will be responsible for keeping people who are already signed up satisfied, as well as reaching out to the millions of Americans who are eligible for coverage but not yet insured.
Counihan said he鈥檚 optimistic that it can be done. 鈥淧eople understand intuitively that having people uninsured is not right for them or right for the country,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow, how we go about doing it 鈥� people can debate and there can be solid policy differences. 聽But I鈥檓 fundamentally very optimistic that, even though there are some big ideological schisms, that those can be bridged.鈥�
Counihan鈥檚 exchange excelled at marketing Obamacare insurance 鈥� taking the pitch to , jazz festivals and a storefront on a city street. And he credits some of that success to the pool of executive talent he was able to draw on in Hartford, an insurance capital.
Counihan has several decades of experience in health care, including launching complex new coverage programs. After a career in the private insurance industry (Tufts Health Plan, Cigna), he helped launch Massachusetts鈥� successful health exchange starting in 2006. He also helped launch a private insurance exchange in California.
Counihan is the second high-profile addition to the healthcare.gov second year team. Earlier this summer HHS brought on Andy Slavitt, who helped fix the site鈥檚 initial problems as an executive with contractor Optum.
Counihan may have caught the president鈥檚 attention a year or so ago during a conference call with the leaders of the state-based exchanges. Counihan recalls talking to the president about the marketing event at the Lil Wayne concert: 鈥淎nd he said, 鈥楲il Wayne. 聽I鈥檝e never been to a Lil Wayne concert.鈥� 聽And I said, 鈥榃ell, Mr. President, neither [had] I, and I don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 exactly in the target demographic.鈥欌��
Later in the meeting, another exchange official from a different state talked about advertising their state鈥檚 exchange on coasters at bars. 鈥淢y counterpart in that state had said that she felt too old or embarrassed to actually go into bars to see if it鈥檚 working,鈥� Counihan said. 鈥淎t which point the president said, 鈥榃ell, if Kevin can go to a Lil Wayne concert, you certainly should be able to go to a bar.鈥欌��
Julie Rovner contributed.