Short Cuts: Interview w/WA's Ins. Comm.; a look at #OE2 outreach efforts; Hawaii to use ACA funds to enroll Pacific island migrants

I really, really like this guy--not just because he's strongly embraced the ACA, but because his philosophy is very much in line with mine when it comes to transparency:

• Insurance boss Kreidler on the future of health-care reform

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler grabbed national attention last year when he broke with President Obama’s efforts to mollify a public upset by canceled insurance plans. Of late, Kreidler has been openly critical of the state’s botched efforts to make repairs to the online insurance exchange.

But Kreidler remains a champion of the effort to make universal health care a reality, and Washington has taken some meaningful steps in that direction. The state has reduced the number of uninsured residents by roughly 38 percent since it expanded who is eligible for Medicaid and opened a new insurance marketplace in October 2013.

• Outreach Workers Look For Gains In Second Year Of Obamacare

With the HealthCare.gov website working for consumers much more smoothly than last year, health officials are focused on reaching out to potential customers.

For starters, they want to people who bought insurance last year to take another look at those plans. And, of course, the exchange wants to bring in new customers who didn't need or skipped insurance last year.

Among them, are minority groups that didn't sign up in the numbers that state officials hoped for last year. In Montana and Georgia the minorities differ but face similar challenges.

This one is really interesting to me...I had no idea about this "Compact of Free Association" thing, nor did I realize that the ACA allowed funding of heatlhcare for this population:

• Hawaii to use federal funds for health care for migrants from Pacific islands

HONOLULU — Hawaii will save about $21.5 million by tapping into federal funding to pay for health care for people living in the state under the Compact of Free Association, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Roughly 7,500 adult migrants from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands will be able to sign up for medical coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (http://goo.gl/DqGWg6 ).