President Obama took a break from his Italian trip today to hop on a conference call with Obamacare navigators and tout six million signups, the White House said.
A readout from press secretary Jay Carney said the president “convened a conference call with health care navigators and volunteers helping with enrollment efforts and announced that more than 6 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance plans through the federal and state Marketplaces since October 1.”
“The President was joined on the call by several thousand grassroots volunteers, navigators and in-person assistors who are leading the effort to enroll millions of Americans in quality, affordable health insurance plans,” the announcement continued. “During the call, the President thanked the group for all their hard work to date and discussed the importance of building on this progress over the last four days of open enrollment.”
“With consumers’ interest in signing up for health insurance surging – yesterday there were over 1.5 million visits to HealthCare.gov and over 430,000 calls to the call centers – the President encouraged the navigators and volunteers to redouble their efforts over the next four days and leave no stone unturned in trying to bring affordable health coverage to as many Americans as possible by the March 31 deadline. Nationwide, there more than 27,000 trained assistors in all fifty states who are helping consumers sign up in their communities.”
The administration still hasn’t detailed how many people have paid for their plans.
Obama’s fundraising machine also stepped up its last-minute pitch for Obamacare.
Organizing for Action sent out a fundraising email accusing the Koch Brothers of being behind beer parties for young people refusing to sign up for Obamacare.
“Let them spend their millions on sick crap like that. Whether they like it or not, they’re losing this debate, all because of the work you’re doing. We’re the group that’s capable of putting these groups in their place,” OFA Chairman Jim Messina said in the email. “…Our track record is pretty damn good. We’ve shown we can beat them, because we’re building something bigger, stronger, and smarter than just a pile of money.”
Both OFA and the Democratic National Committee sent out emails to supporters today pegging the number of signups at “more than 5 million.”
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