Obama to speak about healthcare reform’s slow start

Massachusetts’ state healthcare reform was a model for the Affordable Care Act, and President Barack Obama is expected to reference its slow start and other issues in relation to his own exchange difficulties during an upcoming speech.

According to The New York Times, the president is beginning to point to Massachusetts’ own roll out of its healthcare reform law to showcase how the nation’s reform may be slow. The ACA is a central topic for lawmakers and the president’s administration, and many have criticized recent challenges with the federal and state health insurance exchange websites as a key factor in why the law isn’t working. However, The New York Times reported Obama will speak in Boston about the future success of the law and how it will take time, resources and patience for the U.S. to see all the benefits.

The Associated Press reported Jonathon Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an advisor to Obama on the development of the law, expressed his assurance that the ACA and the exchanges will eventually be successful.

“That same kind of outcome will happen at the national level, but it will take time,” Gruber said in a media call, according to the AP. “We need to be patient and measure the outcomes in months and years, not days and weeks.”