Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Obama Announces Health Law Enrollment Hits 20 Million
President Obama said on Thursday that enrollment in health coverage under the Affordable Care Act had reached a new high, 20 million, and he called the law an overwhelming success in [Milwaukee] and around the nation despite Republicans鈥 implacable opposition. 鈥淐ongressional Republicans have tried and failed to repeal Obamacare about 60 times,鈥 Mr. Obama said to an audience [in Milwaukee]. 鈥淭hey have told you what they would replace it with about zero times.鈥 He continued, his voice rising: 鈥淚f they got their way, 20 million people would have their insurance taken away from them. Twenty million people!鈥 (Harris, 3/3)
The administration described the drop in uninsured numbers as 鈥渉istoric.鈥 In a statement, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of health and human services, said, 鈥淲e have seen progress in the last six years that the country has sought for generations.鈥 The new findings show that more than 6 million adults ages 19 to 25 have gained insurance under the law. Gains in coverage among previously uninsured adults were strong across all racial and ethnic groups, according to the report. (McGinley, 3/3)
Congratulating local leaders in Wisconsin for winning a national health insurance enrollment contest, Obama acknowledged that millions more are eligible to enroll but have yet to do so. He attributed some of that to acrimony over the law, saying people haven't always known what's true and what's not. Obama was introduced at the event by Brent Brown of Mosinee, Wisconsin, who said he's a Republican who never voted to elect Obama and worked to ensure he would not be president. But he said the health care law saved his life after he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and ran out of money for treatment. Brown called on Republicans to quit trying to repeal the law. "Swallow your pride as I am doing right now," he said. (Freking, 3/3)
It's not very often that President Barack Obama gets upstaged. But that's what happened Thursday at the Bruce-Guadalupe Middle School when Brent Brown of Mosinee, a Republican who voted against the president in two elections, came out to introduce Obama. (Glauber, Spicuzza and Johnson, 3/3)
