West Virginia has done well in cutting the number of residents without health insurance, but significant health challenges still remain, Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, leader of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday night.
Speaking to a ballroom full of health care advocates at the University of Charleston, Burwell praised the state for its implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
More than 187,000 West Virginians have gotten health coverage through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program since West Virginia opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Burwell said.
"West Virginia is one of the top states in the nation in reducing the number of uninsured," Burwell said. "We're one of the few states in the entire nation to have near universal coverage for its children."
But the Hinton native then went on to list some of the serious health challenges plaguing the state.
Too many West Virginians struggle with poverty, disability and obesity, she said, and the state leads the nation in rates of smoking, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And, as has been much discussed recently, West Virginia leads the nation in drug overdose deaths.
Burwell has been in West Virginia for most of the week. She appeared at an event in Charleston Wednesday with President Barack Obama to discuss the opioid epidemic wracking West Virginia and the nation.
She spoke Friday for just under 10 minutes at the annual fundraiser, and 10th anniversary celebration for West Virginians for Affordable Health Care.
The group's executive director, Terri Giles has been friends with Burwell since childhood.
Burwell joked about how the two met four decades ago and volunteered together on Jay Rockefeller's unsuccessful 1972 campaign for governor.
"We weren't quite running the campaign," she said. "We were six years old. But our mothers told us we were an important part of the effort."
While she lives in Washington now, Burwell said her heart still belongs to West Virginia.
Giles concurred.
"Listen, I'm going to be partisan on this," she said. "Hinton is the center of the universe."
She praised the Afforable Care Act not just for reducing the ranks of the uninsured nationwide, but for helping the drive down the rates of uncompensated care that doctors and hospitals have to provide and helping shift incentives toward paying for the quality of health care provided, rather than just the quantity.
The third open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act begins in two weeks and Burwell urged the crowd to help get people signed up.
The website is more user-friendly, she said, and people can get in-person assistance or use the a 24-hour call center to get help signing up.
About 31,000 West Virginians have signed up for insurance on the Affordable Care Act's marketplace, Burwell said, and nearly 80 percent of the people signing up on the marketplace nationwide are eligible for financial assistance to help cover the cost.
Also Friday night, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care honored its founder and longtime director Perry Bryant, who retired last year, and gave an award to Dr. Rahul Gupta, commissioner of the state Bureau for Public Health.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.