Responding to growing criticism and millions of frustrated citizens who have been unable to navigate through the Affordable Care Act web site to register for health care insurance, President Barack Obama addressed the nation today in the White House Rose Garden to assure the public that the computer glitches will be resolved.
The White House estimates that nearly 500,000 people have managed to apply for coverage, but millions more have been unable to get through the web site at www.healthcare.gov.
Obama declared today that “nobody is madder than me” about the failures of the government’s health care Web site, but he said the technical problems do not indicate a broader failure of the Affordable Care Act.
“We did not wage this long and contentious battle just around a Web site. That’s not what this was about,” Obama told supporters during 25-minute remarks in the Rose Garden. “It’s time for folks to stop rooting for its failure because hard working, middle class families are rooting for its success.”
The event by the president was intended as a response to mounting criticism of the health care law in the wake of the Web site’s failures.
“So one study shows that through new options created by the Affordable Care Act, nearly 6 in 10 uninsured Americans will find that they can get covered for less than a hundred dollars a month. Think about that. Through the marketplaces, you can get health insurance for what may be the equivalent of your cellphone bill or your cable bill. And that’s a good deal,” Obama said. “So the fact is, the product of the Affordable Care Act for people without health insurance is quality health insurance that’s affordable. And that product is working. It’s really good. And it turns out there’s a massive demand for it. So far, the national website, healthcare.gov, has been visited nearly 20 million times.”
