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Obama: ‘The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay’​ More than 7 million have enrolled under Affordable Care Act, White House says​
(about 4 hours later)
President Obama said Tuesday the fact that more than 7.1 million Americans had signed up for health insurance over the past six months showed “the Affordable Care Act is here to stay.” President Obama announced Tuesday that more than 7 million Americans have signed up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, the most ambitious federal effort in nearly half a century to widen access to coverage.
“The bottom line is this: the share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth in the cost of insurance is down,” he said, standing in the Rose Garden with Vice President Biden. “There’s no good reason to go back.” The tally, which signified a sharp turnaround from the troubled beginnings of enrollment last fall, was driven upward by a late rush of consumers seeking coverage in the days and hours before the deadline of midnight Monday to select health plans for 2014.
 The White House’s announcement Tuesday marks a sharp turnaround for a federal campaign to sell the nation on new health insurance from disastrous beginnings six months ago. Even after the official cutoff, more than 100,000 people at a time were on HealthCare.gov, the online federal insurance marketplace, late into the night, according to a person familiar with the last-minute surge. People who have started to enroll on the federal exchange, as well as on some state exchanges, have a grace period to finish their applications.
The 7.1 million tally is based on the number of people who enrolled for coverage through the new federal insurance marketplace operating in three dozen states by the deadline of midnight on Monday, plus the enrollments from 14 state-run marketplaces as of March 30. “This law is doing what’s it’s supposed to do,” a buoyant Obama declared during late-afternoon remarks in the White House Rose Garden. “It’s working. It’s helping people from coast to coast.”
Taken together, the enrollment reflects a late rush of consumers seeking coverage as the March 31 deadline approached. They lifted the enrollment beyond the level that federal officials have believed likely in recent months. The 7.1 million total means that the six-month sign-up period achieved results that congressional budget analysts had first anticipated — and more recently had thought would be impossible. Two months ago, the analysts downgraded their forecast from 7 million to 6 million, taking into account massive computer trouble with HealthCare.gov for much of the fall that frustrated many people trying to shop for health plans.
Recounting the tales of three Americans who have been helped by the law—including a woman who was diagnosed with cancer after getting covered under the law — Obama said that was the point of the law,”Making sure that all of us, and all our fellow citizens can count on the security of health care when we get sick.” The tally is based on the number of people who enrolled for coverage by Monday’s deadline through the new federal insurance marketplace operating in three dozen states. It also includes people who enrolled in 14 state-run marketplaces as of the deadline or, in the case of a few states, by last weekend.
He also said congressional Democrats should be proud of having helped enact the law, even as they come under attack this year. As surprise about the high total rippled among the Obama administration’s friends and foes alike, they agreed that the law had met the threshold test of whether it could attract large numbers to federal and state-run insurance marketplaces.
“We could not have done it without them, and they should be proud of what they’ve done,” he said, warning that Republicans could pay a price for their opposition. “In the end, history is not kind to those who would deny Americans their basic economic security… That’s what the Affordable Care Act represents.” The last-minute enrollment had several causes: eagerness by some people to gain affordable health benefits. Wariness of running afoul of the first federal law requiring most Americans to be insured. Campaign-like techniques that the administration employed, especially since January, to urge people to sign up.
Obama cautioned that there were still problems in the nation’s health care system. “It’s an amazing achievement,” said Chris Jennings, who helped direct the White House’s implementation of the law until he returned to the private sector a few months ago.
“This doesn’t mean all the problems with health care have been solved,” he said. “But the debate over repealing this law is over.” Republicans, who have not relinquished their crusade to dismantle the 2010 legislation, were praising but more skeptical. “At some level you have to take your hat off and say congratulations,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. But he was quick to add, “It’s an interim accomplishment at best.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney that high enrollment was due, in part, to the intensive public campaign by the Obama administration and its allies to persuade the public to sign up. But, Carney added, “most of all it’s the fact that the American people, despite the negative advertising, despite the obstacles we put in their way with the crummy rollout, made it clear that they wanted this product.” Health policy experts said that the long-term significance of the high enrollment for this first year of insurance will take time to clarify. “There is still a lot of haze around this,” said Jonathan Oberlander, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies health-care politics.
Congressional budget analysts had long forecast that 7 million people would get coverage this year through new federal and state insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 health-care law during a sign-up period from Oct. 1 to March 31. And the Obama administration embraced that estimate. Oberlander and others noted that the number of people who have gotten coverage varies significantly by state. In addition, uncertainty lingers about how many people who have signed up have actually begun to pay for their new health plans, how many will continue to pay for them, and how many of the enrollees had no insurance before.
But the budget analysts’ forecast was downgraded to 6 million in February, taking into account massive computer problems during much of the fall with HealthCare.gov, the online federal marketplace, that frustrated many consumers who tried to shop for and buy health plans. Even in what was essentially a victory announcement, Obama sounded cognizant of the political minefield still surrounding the law, presenting anew a justification for its existence. “But the bottom line is this: Under this law, the share of Americans with insurance is up and the growth of health-care costs is down, and that’s good for our middle class and that’s good for our fiscal future,” he said, standing with Vice President Biden at his side. “And there’s no good reason to go back.”
“We all know about the early setbacks with the rollout of Obamacare, but here it is today,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at the start of his weekly briefing with reporters. “People are hungry for the benefits of this law.” Senior administration officials said the fact that a large number of Americans signed up by the deadline will make it easier to defend the law on the campaign trail this year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was decidedly less upbeat about the new Obamacare enrollment numbers. Several Democratic senators are running for reelection in states where the GOP is trying to fan opposition to the law. One of the most vulnerable, Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.), hailed Tuesday’s news. “Today’s enrollment announcement confirms what I have said since day one — the Affordable Care Act holds great promise and is getting stronger every day,” she said in a statement.
“We don’t know of course, exactly what they have signed up for, we don’t know how many have paid. What we do know is that all across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with Obamacare,” McConnell said in a statement. “Whether they can sign up for a policy or not, they are discovering, of course, higher premiums, a higher deductible. Many of them are losing their jobs and so it is really a catastrophe for the country both for the healthcare providers and the consumers.” The late enrollment boom suggests that the administration’s outreach effort was effective, even though it started essentially two months late while problems with HealthCare.gov were being worked on. Officials relied on many of the same campaign tactics
The unexpectedly large number of enrollees, rushed out hours after the close of the six-month enrollment window for coverage in 2014, means that the marketplaces proved more popular in their final days than anyone expected. , including social media and regional talk radio, that Obama’s aides used two years ago — this time, their goal was to bring young people, Latinos and African Americans into the nation’s health-care system.
The extent of the new insurance’s popularity carries significant political implications for a law that has been a source of deep partisan division ever since it was enacted four years ago. The Obama administration and other Democrats have predicted that the American public would be attracted to health plans — and the law that created them — once they actually were given an opportunity to gain the insurance. Republicans have predicted that the law is fatally flawed and would be spurned. The administration worked closely with allied groups — including Enroll America, the Service Employees International Union and Planned Parenthood — to sign up consumers in 25 cities, including Atlanta, Dallas and Miami, that have high numbers of uninsured and are in states that relied on the federal exchange instead of creating their own.
Wesley Lowery contributed to this story. Just as people rushed to the federal health insurance exchange Monday, states faced their own deluge. Web page views on California’s health exchange were four times as many as its second-busiest day. Like the federal government, California and a few other states are giving those who started the process extra time to pick a plan.
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