AMA OPENS UP ON OBAMACARE. The president’s hour-long speech on Thursday — his most extensive comments on his signature health law in months — was wonky, feisty and overtly political.
“The Affordable Care Act has done what it was designed to do,” and improved the health system, President Barack Obama said during a speech at Miami Dade College where he repeatedly attacked Republicans. “Why is there still such a fuss? Well, part of the problem is a Democratic president named Barack Obama passed the law. That’s just the truth.”
With open enrollment looming, the speech gave the president a high-profile platform to defend the ACA and frame its legacy. A big part of that pitch was the law’s role in coverage expansion: Obama seized on the nation’s historically low uninsured rate and stressed that Medicaid expansion needed to continue after he leaves office, Pro’s Paul Demko reports. He also reiterated his support for a government-run insurance plan that could bolster competition and called for additional subsidies to make coverage more affordable — ideas that have encountered strong resistance from Republicans.
But the president acknowledged some of the law’s setbacks, particularly the emerging problems related to Obamacare marketplaces. In recent weeks, even Democrats like Bill Clinton and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton have begun warning about the challenges to affordability posed by the cost of some plans on the exchanges. “Just because a lot of the Republican criticism has proven to be false and politically motivated doesn’t mean there aren’t some legitimate concerns about how the law is working now,” Obama said. […]
Bigger problems looming? Many attendees also expressed concern about whether FDA has enough resources to support the biosimilar program. “A major goal is that this should make medications more affordable, and we are concerned that sometimes this isn’t happening,” said Diana Zuckerman of the National Center for Health Research. “We are concerned about any kind of backlog and how slow this process has been so far.”
Zuckerman also expressed concern that user fees don’t include any money to monitor the safety of biosimilars once they’re on the market. […]
Click here for the full article.