President Obama marked four years since he signed Obamacare into law by declaring “the share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth of health care costs is down, to its slowest rate in fifty years – two of the most promising developments for our middle class and our fiscal future in a long time.”
“More Americans with insurance have gained new benefits and protections – the 100 million Americans who’ve gained the right to free preventive care like mammograms and contraception, the eight million seniors who’ve saved thousands of dollars on their prescription drugs, and the untold number of families who won’t be driven into bankruptcy by out-of-pocket costs, because this law prevents insurers from placing dollar limits on the care you can receive,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
“More Americans without insurance have gained coverage. Over the past four years, over three million young Americans have been able to stay on their family plans. And over the past five and a half months alone, more than five million Americans have signed up to buy private health insurance plans on HealthCare.gov – plans that can no longer discriminate against preexisting conditions or charge you more just because you’re a woman or a cancer survivor – and millions more have enrolled in Medicaid.”
Obama said it’s “these numbers, and the stories behind each one of them, that will ultimately determine the fate of this law.”
“It is the measurable outcomes – in savings for families and businesses, healthier kids with better performance in schools, seniors with more money to spend because they’re paying less for their medicine, and young entrepreneurs who’ll have the freedom to try new jobs or chase that new idea – that will ultimately offer more security and peace of mind to more Americans who work hard to get ahead,” he added.
The president called Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare “some outdated obsession.”
“And that’s why my administration will spend the fifth year of this law and beyond working to implement and improve on it,” he said.
Obama put in a plug for the March 31 signup deadline. “It’s now last call for 2014,” he added.
Obama spend Saturday on the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base. White House pool reporters noted the unusual sight of the president in a golf cart alone without tee time partners Marvin Nicholson, Walter Nicholson and Luke Rosa.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) released a video message calling the Obamacare anniversary something that shouldn’t be celebrated.
“ObamaCare has gone from being something political, to something personal. Personal because now people can no longer continue to see the doctors they’ve been seeing for a long time. They can no longer continue to go to the specialty center that is caring for them. They’ve lost the health insurance they were happy with. They’re paying higher premiums, or a much higher deductible. Maybe it’s cost them their job, maybe it’s cost them hours at work or maybe they’re suffering from all of the above,” Rubio said.
“This is today’s reality when it comes to ObamaCare. In fact, the law is such a disaster that virtually every single week the White House is suspending one portion of it, or another. In fact, they have suspended some of its most damaging portions until, coincidentally, the next election passes because they too know the impact this is having on our country. But they refuse to acknowledge it.”
Rubio added that the repeal efforts will continue, along with the goal to “replace it with real market-based solutions that allow every single American to have the ability to buy affordable health insurance that meets their needs, and to buy it from any company in America that will sell it to them.”
“We’re going to have a chance to achieve that soon. We cannot give up. ObamaCare is not something that’s set in stone. It can be repealed —and Americans increasingly want it to be repealed — and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member