Politics
Health care insurance enrollment hits 4 million – Obama
Pro-Obamacare demostrators lobbying outside the U.S. Supreme Court. PHOTO/Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
Pressing for a final rush of health care enrollees, U.S. President President Barack Obama said Tuesday that about 4 million people have signed up for health insurance through federal or state marketplaces set up under his health care law.
But with a key deadline approaching fast, he urged some of his most steadfast backers to help sign up millions more by then.
“We’ve only got a few weeks left. March 31st, that’s the last call,” Obama said, explaining that anyone not signed up by that date will have to wait until open enrollment begins anew in the fall. In the meantime, they risk being fined for not having coverage.
The White House has set an unofficial goal of 7 million enrollees by the end of March.
Nearly 3.3 million people, or less than half the total, had enrolled through the end of January.
Enrollment was slowed at the start of the sign-up period last October by numerous glitches in the health care website the administration created to help people find coverage. Some states running their own websites encountered problems, too.
Obama blamed the depressed enrollment on the bungled website and on an “implacable opposition” that he said has spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to oppose the signature domestic policy accomplishment of his presidency.
