Today, we posted a new factsheet outlining the many ways in which the Affordable Care Act will reduce health disparities across the U.S. All across the country, low-income Americans, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBT, and other underserved populations have not had adequate access to health care.
This means, these underserved populations are not able to take advantage of preventive services available to help them stay healthy and fight chronic disease

Over the past two months, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and other HHS officials have partnered with a variety of stakeholders to support the growing Partnership for Patients initiative. With the desire to work closely with hospitals across the country, the Secretary has embarked on a national tour to applaud hospitals and medical centers that are being proactive about making their facilities safer and more effective at treating patients with fewer complications.

In the past, our health care system functioned more like a sick care system. Even though seven of ten deaths in America and three quarters of our nation’s health expenditures are due to chronic diseases, we were investing only 4 cents of every health care dollar in prevention – the kind of care to keep people from getting diseases in the first place.

That is changing under the Obama Administration, and this June, we are marking our nation’s first-ever Prevention and Wellness Month. Over the next month, you can look forward to announcements, activities, and tips that will help you and your family get healthy and stay healthy.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced new changes that will reduce premiums and ease eligibility standards for Americans seeking to enroll in Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan in a number of states.  

The Affordable Care Act is cutting the cost of prescription drugs for millions of people with Medicare. Starting this year, people with Medicare receive a 50% percent discount on covered brand name drugs bought when they are in the donut hole. So far, 271,000 people have used the discounts to save an average of $613 for a total of $166 million.

Today, HHS awarded three grants to help States continue their work to implement a key provision of the Affordable Care Act – Health Insurance Exchanges.
We are taking an important step forward in creating a better insurance marketplace, by awarding “Exchange Establishment Grants” to Indiana, Washington and Rhode Island. These grants will help ensure these States have the resources and the flexibility they need to establish Exchanges, and ensure that Americans are no longer on their own when shopping for insurance.

As we continue to build the Partnership for Patients, we have reached out to every sector of the health care delivery system. Each and every stakeholder has asked the same question: “How can we help?” This has been reflected in the more than 1,500 hospitals that have joined the Partnership bringing the total number of Partners to more than 3,000.

Over the last 10 years, the cost of family health insurance has jumped an amazing 131 percent and today coverage is out of reach for millions of people and business owners. The Affordable Care Act was passed last year to address this critical problem. Starting September 1, large rate increases proposed by insurers in every State will be reviewed by independent experts to guarantee the increase is reasonable and warranted. This process, called “rate review,” will require insurance companies to justify increases of 10 percent or more in the first year, and insurers will be required to publish those explanations on their website.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today the availability of over $100 million in funding for up to 75 Community Transformation Grants aimed at creating healthy environments and promoting healthy lifestyles. Created as part of the Prevention and Public Health Fund by the Affordable Care Act, Community Transformation Grants will help communities concentrate on the causes of chronic disease and help move our nation from a focus on sickness and disease to one based on wellness and prevention.

In response to stakeholder requests for resources, HHS recently released an interactive video Partnering to Heal: Teaming Up Against Healthcare-Associated Infections to promote a culture of safety in healthcare settings. This interactive, computer-based training allows students and clinicians to make decisions based on different characters’ life experiences in healthcare settings and situations and learn from their outcomes, both positive and negative. A facilitator’s guide accompanies the training for classroom or small group use.

A new report released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that most families without health insurance don’t have the financial assets to pay the hospital bills they would incur if a family member were to be hospitalized. The new report found that most uninsured families have virtually no savings or investments. In fact, the median financial assets for an uninsured family are twenty dollars.

You heal scraped knees with band-aids. You hold your child’s hand at the doctor’s office and you definitely know the difference between the stomach flu and a fear of book reports. Who are you? You’re a Mom. As a Mom myself, I’m familiar with how busy life gets taking care of our children and family. Now, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there are tools out there that offer some peace of mind.

America has a skilled health care workforce and great hospitals. Every day, our health professionals are committed to improving care processes and systems for patients. So how will your doctor, your hospital, and Medicare align to fight disease and provide you with the best possible care? Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, created under the Affordable Care Act. This program provides hospitals with incentive payments based on their performance on a number of health care quality measures.

To help spread the word about this new benefit, I teamed up with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to help educate you, the graduating class of 2011, about your new rights and benefits under the Affordable Care Act. To get the word out, we sent letters to college and university presidents as well as student body presidents outlining how the Affordable Care Act can help you obtain health coverage. The letter also includes new tools available to help share this information with all students and parents.