WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama mounted a vigorous effort on Thursday to show his signature healthcare law is working and dismissed Republican critics who are using flaws in Obamacare to campaign for ousting Democrats from the US Congress in November.
Appearing in the White House briefing room days before leaving the national stage for a week-long trip to Asia, Obama used a news conference to make the case that the Affordable Care Act had mended nicely from its disastrous October rollout.
He announced that 8 million people had now signed up for health insurance and that 35 percent of enrollees through the federal marketplace are under the age of 35. For the healthcare law to succeed, young, healthy people must sign up and pay premiums to offset the healthcare costs for older Americans.
Obama's remarks reflected deep concerns at the White House that Republicans may be able to topple Democrats from control of the US Senate in November elections and build on their majority in the House of Representatives. A Republican-run Congress would make legislative achievements in Obama's last two years in office difficult.
He said under the 2010 healthcare law, the share of Americans with insurance has grown, the growth of healthcare costs has slowed, hundreds of millions of Americans who already have insurance now enjoy new benefits and protections and no one with a pre-existing health condition can be denied coverage.
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