he Affordable Care Act calls for a risk adjustment program that aims to eliminate incentives for health insurance plans to avoid people with pre-existing conditions or those who are in poor health. Risk adjustment ensures that health insurance plans have additional money to provide services to the people who need them most by providing more funds to plans that provide care to people that are likely to have high health costs. Insurance plans then compete on the basis of quality and service, and not on the basis of whether they can attract healthy people.

Today we have good news from the National Health Service Corps. Thanks to the investments we made in the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act, the numbers of doctors, nurses, and health care professionals in this program has nearly tripled in the last three years. And for the first time in its nearly 40 year history, the National Health Service Corps can count more than 10,000 members in its ranks.