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When Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this March, it took a health insurance system that was locked in a decades-long spiral of rising costs and shrinking security and set it on a new course. The new law contains a series of long-overdue reforms that will put consumers — not insurance companies — in charge of their health care.

At the Department of Health and Human Services, we’re charged with leading the implementation of these reforms. That’s why our department has been working around the clock since March with partners in the administration, Congress and across the country to implement the first wave of reforms quickly and effectively. A few months into the job, we can already see a more consumer-friendly health insurance...