New head of Healthcare.gov is CT's Counihan

Kevin Counihan, the head of Connecticut's health insurance marketplace, will be the new CEO of healthcare.gov, the website that 36 states use to sell insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the administration announced Tuesday. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tapped Counihan to lead the site as part of a revamped management structure that aims to have the second year of Obamacare run more smoothly than the first. Access Health CT, under Counihan's leadership, is one of the more successful state-run exchanges. About 257,000 people got coverage, according to the state, including 79,000 people who signed up for private insurance. Surveys show that about half the people who gained coverage in the state were previously uninsured.