PRESIDENT OBAMA'S STATEMENT ON FOURTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

Statement by the President on the Fourth Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

Since I signed the Affordable Care Act into law, the share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth of health care costs is down, to its slowest rate in fifty years – two of the most promising developments for our middle class and our fiscal future in a long time.

More Americans with insurance have gained new benefits and protections – the 100 million Americans who’ve gained the right to free preventive care like mammograms and contraception, the eight million seniors who’ve saved thousands of dollars on their prescription drugs, and the untold number of families who won’t be driven into bankruptcy by out-of-pocket costs, because this law prevents insurers from placing dollar limits on the care you can receive.

More Americans without insurance have gained coverage.  Over the past four years, over three million young Americans have been able to stay on their family plans.  And over the past five and a half months alone, more than five million Americans have signed up to buy private health insurance plans on HealthCare.gov – plans that can no longer discriminate against preexisting conditions or charge you more just because you’re a woman or a cancer survivor – and millions more have enrolled in Medicaid.

It is these numbers, and the stories behind each one of them, that will ultimately determine the fate of this law.  It is the measurable outcomes – in savings for families and businesses, healthier kids with better performance in schools, seniors with more money to spend because they’re paying less for their medicine, and young entrepreneurs who’ll have the freedom to try new jobs or chase that new idea – that will ultimately offer more security and peace of mind to more Americans who work hard to get ahead.

Last month, after her first wellness visit under her new insurance plan, a woman from Colorado shared with me what that peace of mind meant to her. “After using my new insurance for the first time, you probably heard my sigh of relief from the White House,” she wrote.  “I felt like a human being again.  I felt that I had value.”

This is what’s at stake any time anyone, out of some outdated obsession, pledges to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act.  And that’s why my administration will spend the fifth year of this law and beyond working to implement and improve on it. 

If you’re an American who wants to get covered – or if you know someone who should – it’s now last call for 2014.  March 31^st is the deadline to get covered this year.  So check out HealthCare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596 to see what new choices are available to you, and get covered today.

AIR FORCE COMMITS TO USE OF GSA'S OASIS CONTRACT FOR COMPLEX PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

FROM:  U.S. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION 
Air Force Signs On the Line, Commits to Primary Use of GSA’s OASIS Contract for Complex Professional Services
December 19, 2013

WASHINGTON --  In a ceremony held today at U.S. General Services Administration headquarters, GSA and the United States Air Force signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) securing Air Force’s use of GSA’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) and OASIS Small Business contracts for procurement of complex professional services.  OASIS is a first-of-its kind contract that will provide the government with a total solution contract vehicle for complex professional services projects.

“OASIS will save Air Force, and our folks in the field, a tremendous amount of time and effort. It will allow us to aggressively go after our small business goal with access to highly capable and vetted companies, and it significantly reduces our manpower requirements to conduct complex acquisitions,” said Randall D. Culpepper, Program Executive Officer for Combat and Mission Support, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.  "Our partnership with GSA on OASIS allows us preserve precious resources while putting in place a tool that is exceptionally responsive to the needs of defense organizations supporting the warfighter.  We think this will be a great long-term relationship that will get us a lot of bang for the acquisition bucks that we have.

Through OASIS and OASIS Small Business, Air Force will:

Reduce excess costs associated with award and administration of multiple IDIQ and/or standalone contracts
Reduce the lead time and administrative efforts it currently takes agencies to acquire complex professional services
Gain insight into spend volume and labor types and costs across the Federal Government and facilitate negotiation of lower pricing at the task order level
Improve and reduce time associated with task order proposal comparison process by creating “apples to apples” comparisons of proposed labor costs
Eliminate need for Task Order Contracting Officers to evaluate proposals from poor performers
The response period for OASIS and OASIS-Small Business Requests for Proposal (RFPs) came to a close last month; the OASIS team expects to award contracts in early 2014.

OASIS will be designed to address agencies' needs for any one or combination of the following professional service requirements that:

Span multiple professional service disciplines
Contain significant IT components, but are not IT requirements in and of themselves
Contain Ancillary Support components commonly referred to as ODCs
Require flexibility for all contract types at the task order level including cost reimbursement
OASIS will be able to provide both commercial and non-commercial services. The core disciplines of the contract will include program management services, management consulting services, logistics services, engineering services, scientific services, and financial services.

HHS CLAIMS AFFORDABLE CARE ACT SAVES CONSUMERS $1.2 BILLION

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES 
Health care law saves consumers $1.2 billion nationwide

A new report released today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shows that 6.8 million consumers saved an estimated $1.2 billion on health insurance premiums in 2012, due to the “rate review” provision of the Affordable Care Act, which brought unprecedented accountability to slow the growth of health insurance premiums.  The Affordable Care Act, along with state efforts, continues to bring scrutiny to proposed health insurance rate increases and is saving consumers real money as a result.

“Thanks to the health care law, we are seeing that holding insurance companies accountable is leading to increased competition and saving billions of dollars for consumers across the country,” said Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of HHS. “This type of competition and transparency will continue in the Health Insurance Marketplace, or Exchanges, where Americans will be able to shop for and compare plans side-by-side to find the one that fits their needs and budget.”

Beginning on Sept. 1, 2011, the federal rate review rules under the health care law were implemented. These rules ensure that, in every state, insurance companies are required to submit for review and justify any proposed health insurance premium increase of 10 percent or more.

To assist states in this effort, the Affordable Care Act provides states with Health Insurance Rate Review Grants to enhance their rate review programs and bring greater transparency to the process.  Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and five territories have been awarded rate review grant funds to make the rate review process stronger and more transparent.

These provisions have put an end to the days when insurance companies could raise health insurance premiums by double digit percentages with little oversight.  Because of rate review, the report released today shows that consumers have saved approximately $1.2 billion over the past year in the individual and small group markets.

This initiative is one of many in the health care law aimed at saving money for consumers and specifically works in conjunction with the 80/20 rule, which requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on health care or provide rebates to their customers, instead of overhead, administrative expenses. Thanks to the 80/20 rule, last year 77.8 million consumers saved an estimated $3.4 billion up front on their premiums as insurance companies operated more efficiently.  Insurance companies that did not meet the 80/20 rule provided nearly 8.5 million Americans with $500 million in rebates.

DOD SAYS IT HAS UNDERTAKEN TO SAVE $1 BILLION FROM SPACE PROGRAM

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,
DOD Officials Detail $1 Billion in Space Program Savings

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2013 - Senior Defense Department officials testified yesterday before Congress highlighting the activities the department has undertaken to save an estimated $1 billion and provide a balanced national security space program.

Gil I. Klinger, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space and intelligence, and Douglas L. Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on strategic forces to review the department's fiscal year 2014 budget request for national security space activities.

Klinger said the Defense Department is introducing competition as early as possible with a more efficient contracting strategy for acquiring space launch services and associated launch capabilities, resulting in significant savings.

"These actions resulted in an estimated savings of over $1 billion in the Future Year Defense Program, below the fiscal year 2013 President's budget, without excessive and unacceptable risk," he said.

Klinger said the department continues to consider potential alternative acquisition and procurement strategies across the national security space portfolio and remains committed to a disciplined cost approach.

"The undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, and the service acquisition executives have established affordability targets for the majority of our large, critical space programs," Klinger said.

The department also is assessing how to take better advantage of commercial opportunities, he said, and will continue to pursue more production-oriented processes and quantities as part of each overall mission architecture.

Klinger noted this approach may result in greater affordability and reduced time to fielding in the future.

"Your authorization in fiscal year 2012 to incrementally fund up to six years to procure two advanced extremely high frequency satellites and your fiscal year 2013 authorization to fund two space-based infrared system satellites are reflected in the fiscal year 2014 president's budget," he said.

DOD is committed to balancing the modernization of mission capability with the associated risks, Klinger told Congress, both in acquisition and operations.

"It is paramount that we deliver the capabilities the warfighter will need in the future, given the evolving threats," he said. "The 2014 budget proposal increased investments over last year in the Space Modernization Initiative for missile warning to inform future acquisition decisions and anticipate evolving threats."

And the Defense Department is implementing various Better Buying Power initiatives, Klinger said, to make GPS more affordable and to ensure it can sustain this "critical" global utility.

"In fiscal year 2014, the department's budget proposal requests funding for an assessment to determine if we can accelerate the military GPS user equipment program," he added.

Klinger said it would fund the development of the next-generation operational control system. "Both are required to enable a new military signal to further improve our GPS anti-jamming capability," he said.

Klinger also noted he was "pleased" to report the completion of studies to help the department frame potential decision points for follow-on capabilities.

"In fiscal year 2012, we completed the architecture studies for resilient-based satellite communications, space control, and overhead persistent infrared capabilities," he said.

Loverro emphasized the "basic reality" that space defense remains vital to national security during his testimony before the HASC subcommittee.

"[This] evolving strategic environment increasingly challenges U.S. space advantages, advantages that both our warfighters and our adversaries have come to appreciate," he said. "As space becomes more congested, competitive, and contested, the department must formulate programs and policies that will secure those advantages in the years to come."

This reality, Loverro said, is juxtaposed with the fact that as a nation, the U.S. provides these capabilities in an environment that is increasingly cost-constrained. And, growing budgeting challenges coupled to increasing external threats compel the department to think and act differently, he said.

"While these two realities present a clear challenge, I do not by any means view them with a sense of 'doom and gloom,'" Loverro noted. "New entrepreneurial suppliers alongside our legacy suppliers are creating an ever-burgeoning commercial space market that can provide a significant advantage to the DOD if we formulate the policies and strategies to encourage their growth and use."

Similarly, he said, there's been growth worldwide in allied space investments in capability, which provide the Defense Department with "significant" opportunities to help build resilience into itsspace capabilities.

These policies and strategies will begin to address challenges and opportunities, but they are just the initial steps in an area that will continue to demand attention and action, Loverro said.