Washington
(AFP) - President Barack Obama Tuesday cheered seven million people who bought
into his health care law and lashed out at political foes who were
"mad" that more Americans could get insured.
Obama
savored a rare moment of triumph in his second term after the Affordable Care
Act sign-up process defied skeptics and a rocky launch to hit its enrollment
target ahead of a Monday deadline.
"Yes,
at times, this reform has been contentious and confusing and obviously it's had
a share of critics," Obama told a crowd in the White House Rose Garden.
"That's
part of what change looks like in a democracy. Change is hard. Fixing what is
broken is hard."
Obama, who
has seen the early hopeful euphoria of his presidency drained by a fierce
partisan battle with Republicans in Congress, insisted that the law, for which
he has paid a heavy political price, had cut costs and widened access.
"But
this law is doing what it is supposed to do. It's working," Obama said.
He also
took aim at Republicans who have made repeated attempts to repeal Obamacare, in
line with a new White House narrative that opponents of the law now actively
want to deprive Americans of their new benefits.
"Why
are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they
so mad about the idea of folks having health insurance?"
Disastrous glitches
The White House said that a total of 7,041,000 people had signed up to plans in the new Obamacare private insurance market place after a late surge ahead of Monday's deadline.
The White House said that a total of 7,041,000 people had signed up to plans in the new Obamacare private insurance market place after a late surge ahead of Monday's deadline.
The
administration had initially set seven million enrollments as its target -- but
lost two months of sign-up time to disastrous glitches with the Healthcare.gov
website late last year.
Few
observers thought that a frantic administration effort to fix the site and
reach out to potential customers at the grass roots would succeed.
White House
spokesman Jay Carney said the seven million figure would rise as more late
arriving data flowed into Washington from the states.
The
successful late surge in enrollments was just the latest drama for a health
care law that cost Obama and his Democrats a large chunk of their political
capital, had to be upheld by the Supreme Court and foundered on deep divisions
between Democrats and Republicans cleaving the United States.
Republicans to fight on
Republicans
however vowed to carry on opposing a law they say has put undue pressure on
small businesses, costs jobs and hiked costs for health care consumers.
"All
across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with
Obamacare," said Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican.
"Whether
they can sign up for a policy or not, they are discovering, of course, higher
premiums, a higher deductible," he said.
"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 law
demands that all Americans have health insurance or pay a fine, but offers
subsidies for the less well-off to sign up.
It could be
months until the full success of the law, the most sweeping social reform in
America in decades, can be gaged.
It is
unknown how many young people have signed up -- an important indicator since
they are needed to subsidize higher costs of older, sicker patients.
If
Obamacare pools skew too old, the cost of premiums could rise next year.
Also
unclear is whether everyone who registered for a health plan actually paid for
it.
Another
unknown is what percentage of those signing up had no prior coverage -- a key
metric in assessing if the law helped 40 million Americans who lack insurance.
 |
Cathey Park shows her bandaged hand written "I love Obamacare"
as she waits to hear Barack Obama speak on healtcare at the Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 30, 2013 (AFP, Jewel Samad) |
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kgoldenageofgaia.com, Steve Beckow, An Hour with an Angel, September 30, 2013, with Archangel Michael
"... SB: Oh! Very good! Okay. I think I recall you mentioning Medicare in Canada. Canada has a wonderful system of universal medicare. When will the United States enjoy the same quality of medicare? Or other nations, for that matter.
AAM: You see, this is one of the fundamental rights, and your United Nations has just begun to peek at this. All of your — yes, all — of your medical systems have been based on false grids that you are eligible for disease. Many, many industries have grown up around this belief system.
Now, we would not dismantle this in a day, because the displacement would be very large, but you have already begun to see the shift to wellness, to healing centers, to alternative methods of energy healing. And with the arrival of your star brothers and sisters this will become even more so.
So not only universal medical care, but universal healthcare and the right to wellness is going to become the simple stand-alone fact over the next year to two years. Oh, and it will happen much more quickly in the United States.
SB: Oh, that’s good to hear. So many people are bankrupted by a sudden illness. And it never should be that way.
AAM: It is an atrocity that one may suffer and die because one does not have adequate money. That is absurd. ..."
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