The White House Blog

Ed. note: This post was first published on the official blog of healthcare.gov. You can see the original post here.

Three years ago, the Affordable Care Act ushered in a new day for health care.

Since then, more than 6.3 million seniors and people with disabilities with Medicare have saved more than $6.1 billion dollars on prescription drugs.  Nearly 71 million Americans got expanded access to preventive service at no charge through their private insurance plans, and 47 million women now have guaranteed access to additional preventive services without cost sharing. More than 3.1 million young adults who were uninsured were able to gain coverage by being able to stay on their parents’ insurance policies until they turned 26.  And parents no longer have to worry about insurers denying coverage to their children because of a pre-existing condition.

Americans are getting more value for their health care dollars due to the health care law. Affordable Care Act initiatives are promoting coordinated care; paying for quality, not quantity; and dramatically reducing fraud and waste, contributing to the slowest growth in national health spending in 50 years. 

Consumers also saved $2 billion in 2012, because of programs to review premium rates and to require insurers to provide rebates if they do not spend at least 80 percent of premiums on care, rather than overhead, such as executive pay and marketing.  And the law’s initiatives have extended the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by eight years.

Ed. note: The full text of the op-ed by Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett is printed below. The piece is published today on BET.com and can be found HERE. 

Today, General Lloyd Austin became the first African-American to lead the U.S. Central Command, which has a wide-ranging area of responsibility for 20 countries in the Middle East and southwest Asia. His appointment is effective immediately.

During the change of command ceremony today, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “General Austin brings to this position combat experience gained on the unforgiving battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. He has commanded some of the Army’s most storied formations, including the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions, as well as the 18th Airborne Corps...With his calm demeanor, strategic vision, regional experience and knowledge, and proven judgment – and with the love and support of Charlene and their children – I am confident General Austin is prepared to lead this command at a time of dramatic change, challenge, and turmoil in its area of responsibility.”

In his 37-year career, General Austin has continually broken barriers for African-Americans in the U.S. Army. He was also the first African-American to serve in his previous position as the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. His historic career includes leading the 3rd Infantry Division in the opening months of the Iraq war where he earned a Silver Star for valor. General Austin later commanded divisions in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and commanded U.S. Forces-Iraq from September 2010 through the completion of the mission in December 2011.

Last year, President Obama predicted Baylor would win the 2012 NCAA Women's basketball tournament. The Bears lived up to the billing, winning the national championship over Notre Dame.

This year, the President is predicting a rematch.

Joining Baylor and Notre Dame in his Final Four are California and UConn. Check out his full bracket:

For President Obama's predictions in the NCAA men’s tournament, click here.

President Barack Obama and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority walk past an honor guard at the Mugata Presidential Compound in Ramallah, the West Bank, March 21, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama was in the West Bank for the first time since 2008 on the second day of his visit to the Middle East, where he held meetings in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Fayyad, and attended a cultural event at Al-Bireh Youth Center. President Obama, who was joined by Secretary of State John Kerry in his meetings, commended President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad for the progress that they’ve made in building the institutions of a Palestinian state.

“I’ve returned to the West Bank because the United States is deeply committed to the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine,” President Obama said in a joint press conference with President Abbas. “Like people everywhere, Palestinians deserve a future of hope -- that their rights will be respected, that tomorrow will be better than today and that they can give their children a life of dignity and opportunity. Put simply, Palestinians deserve a state of their own.”

In the interests of the Palestinian people, and also in the national security interest of Israel, the United States, and the world, President Obama reaffirmed “that the United States remains committed to realizing the vision of two states.”

We seek an independent, a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as the homeland of the Palestinian people, alongside the Jewish State of Israel -- two nations enjoying self-determination, security and peace. As I have said many times, the only way to achieve that goal is through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians themselves. There is no shortcut to a sustainable solution.

The President also spent time in Jerusalem today, this morning where he toured the Israel Museum and again in the afternoon, where he delivered remarks to the Israeli people from the Jerusalem International Convention Center. In his speech, President Obama spoke about the “unbreakable bonds of friendship” between Israel and the United States.

A $6 million manufacturer, a five-person carbon capture start-up, and a 70-person medical device company. On Monday, the President met with the leaders of these small businesses and 100 more like them to discuss the economy and the President’s commitment to small business success.

Organized by the National Small Business Association (NSBA), the group at the White House flew in from over 20 states and represented a broad cross-section of industries. The typical small business owner in the room employed 50 people, generating around $10 million in annual revenue.

As Alan Krueger, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrapped up his remarks on the state of the economy, the President stopped by for a surprise visit.

According to Todd McCracken, President and CEO of NSBA, the small business leaders were “delighted with the event and the President’s visit. He had a great deal of comfort with a broad range of issues that affect small businesses, from economic and tax issues to the specifics about things such as patent policy and small business innovation funds.”

Ed. note: This post was first published on the official blog of healthcare.gov. You can see the original post here.

In the three years since the Affordable Care Act became law, the slower growth of health care costs is saving money in Medicare and the private insurance market, helping to curb previously skyrocketing premiums and making Medicare stronger.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that Medicare and Medicaid spending would be 15 percent less -- or about $200 billion— in 2020 than was previously projected, thanks to this slower growth. Medicare spending per beneficiary rose by just 0.4 percent in 2012, while Medicaid spending per beneficiary actually dropped by 1.9 percent last year. We are making Medicare stronger, too, by spending smarter, promoting coordinated care, and fighting fraud. Not only does this ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.  It means that those who count on Medicare -- our grandparents, parents, our friends, and neighbors – will have it for years to come.

Today, we are announcing that thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more than 6.3 million seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare have saved more than $6.1 billion on prescription drugs since the health care law was enacted three years ago. This is the result of the law’s closing of the prescription coverage gap known as “the donut hole.”

Nearly 3.5 million people with Medicare saved an average of more than $706 each on their prescriptions in 2012.

Ed. note: This post was first published on the official blog of healthcare.gov. You can see the original post here.

For decades before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, health care costs outstripped inflation, without corresponding improvements in health care quality. Our system didn’t incentivize quality or efficiency. We paid providers for the quantity of care, not the quality of care delivered. And we were not using technology to deliver smarter care.

The Affordable Care Act includes steps to improve the quality of health care and lower costs for you and for our nation as a whole. This means avoiding costly mistakes and readmissions, keeping patients healthy, rewarding quality instead of quantity, and creating the health information technology infrastructure that enables new payment and delivery models to work.

Here are just a few ways that the health care law builds a smarter health care system and incentivizes quality – not quantity of care - to drive down costs and save you money.

We’re Shifting the Focus to Quality, Not Quantity

The health care law creates new Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) that incentivize doctors and other providers to work together to provide more coordinated care to their patients. ACOs agree to take responsibility for the cost and quality of their patients and to improve care coordination, safety, and to promote appropriate use of preventive health services. And when this new care model saves the Medicare program money, that savings is shared with the ACO. Over 250 organizations are participating in Medicare ACOs, giving more than 4 million Medicare beneficiaries access to high-quality coordinated care throughout the nation. ACOs are estimated to save the Medicare program up to $940 million in the first four years.

The Affordable Care Act also ties Medicare Advantage bonus payments to the quality of coverage these private plans offer. This gives seniors a broader range of higher quality Medicare Advantage plans from which to choose. As a result, in 2013, the 14 million Medicare beneficiaries currently enrolled in Medicare Advantage have access to 127 four and five star plans, which is 21 more high-quality plans than were available in the previous year.

Keeping You Out of The Hospital

Every year, about 2.6 million seniors – or nearly one in five hospitalized Medicare enrollees – are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, at a cost of more than $26 billion to the Medicare program. Many of these readmissions stem from preventable problems. These rates can be drastically reduced if we do a better job coordinating care and support. The health care law’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program reduces Medicare payments to hospitals with relatively high rates of potentially preventable readmissions to encourage them to focus on this key indicator of patient safety and care quality.

We’re starting to see results. Medicare readmissions rates have remained stuck near 19 percent over the five years that the data has been collected (and likely for decades prior to that), but in 2012 the nationwide rate of hospital readmissions of Medicare patients declined to about 17.8 per cent. This translates to over 70,000 fewer preventable hospital readmissions.

Lowering Costs

Taken together these improvements are providing more value for your health care dollar and helping to fuel historically low cost growth rates in Medicare and Medicaid. Last year, Medicare cost growth increased by only 0.4 percent, continuing the historically low Medicare growth we saw in 2011 and 2010. Spending in Medicaid actually decreased 1.9 percent from 2011 to 2012.

And a recent report found that health care price inflation in January dropped to 1.5 percent, one of the smallest increases on record.

As the nation’s largest insurer, Medicare can lead the way in effective practices like this that deliver better care and drive down costs. Our goal is that these reforms and investments build a health care system that will ensure quality care for generations to come.

Learn more about key features of the Affordable Care Act:

• See how the Affordable Care Act is holding insurance companies accountable
• Learn how the Affordable Care is helping Abby live without fear of being denied coverage.
• Find out how the Affordable Care Act is giving you greater control over your health care.

Yesterday President Obama continued what's become a March tradition: For the fifth time, he sat down to fill out his brackets for the NCAA men and women's basketball tournaments -- and shared his picks with ESPN.

The President has Louisville, Ohio State, Florida, and Indiana headed to Atlanta for the Final Four.

He picked the Hoosiers to top the Cardinals in the National Championship game on April 8.

Download the full predictions here.

We’ll share the President’s pick for the women’s tournament on Friday. Be sure to check back!

Update! Here is President Obama's bracket for the women's tournament. 

As a community college teacher, I know that excellence happens every day in community college classrooms and campuses across this country. Both in my classroom and when I’m on the road visiting community colleges, I am fortunate to see firsthand the tremendous impact these schools have on so many students.  I see students striving, teachers inspiring, and administrators innovating – each doing their best to make the community college experience richer and more meaningful. President Obama has made community colleges a centerpiece of his goal to have the best-educated, most competitive workforce in the world.

Earlier today at the Newseum in Washington, DC, leaders in education and business congratulated Santa Barbara City College from California and Walla Walla Community College from Washington for being selected as co-winners of the 2013 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Kingsborough Community College – CUNY from New York and Lake Area Technical Institute from South Dakota were honored as finalists-with-distinction.