‘Obamacare’ enrollment hits 8 million

President Barack Obama delivered a vigorous defense of his signature health care law Thursday, saying private insurance enrollment under the expansive piece of legislation has reached 8 million people, with 2.2 million of them between 18 and 34 years old. Obama faulted Republicans for failing to agree with him that the program is working, as political analysts looked ahead to the impact of the sign-ups on midterm elections in November.

Administration officials have previously talked about achieving a level of 38 percent of people in the 18 to 34 age range, to give insurers a strong mix of healthier members whose premium payments help offset the cost of older, sicker policyholders. The figures the White House announced Thursday constitute 28 percent of total sign-ups.

"I've said before this law won't solve all the problems in our health care system. We know we've got more work to do. But we now know for a fact that repealing the Affordable Care Act would increase the deficit, raise premiums for millions of Americans and take insurance away from millions more," Obama told reporters at the White House.

"Which is why, as I've said before, I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can't bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working," Obama added.

The Congressional Budget Office — the government's fiscal scorekeeper — said it expects only a minimal increase in customers' costs for 2015. Over the next decade, the CBO said the new law will cost taxpayers $100 billion less than previously estimated.

Obama, who was on the defensive for months over the troubled rollout of the law starting last October, went on the offensive against congressional Republicans for their repeated efforts to repeal the law.

He said under the law, the share of Americans with insurance has grown, the growth of health care costs has fallen, hundreds of millions of Americans who already have insurance now have new benefits and protections, and no one with a pre-existing health condition can be denied coverage.

"Those days are over. And this thing is working," Obama said.

Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to "repeal and replace" the health care law without having a viable replacement in mind, Thomas Mills, a Democratic consultant and blogger in North Carolina, told the Associated Press. Now, he said, Democrats have even more reasons to rise from their defensive crouch on this topic.

"Democrats need to start making the case for Obamacare," Mills said. "They all voted for it, they all own it, so they can't get away from it. So they'd better start defending it."

GOP strategists don't agree. The recent upbeat reports might help Democrats temporarily, but "the negative opinion of Americans toward Obamacare is baked in," Texas-based Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak told the AP.

"If Obamacare was truly trending positively," he said, "Sebelius would have stayed, and Democrats in tough races would be picking a fight on Obamacare, instead of mostly hiding from it."

Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary closely associated with the health care law, announced last week that she is stepping down. Democrats say it's a sign that the biggest problems are past, but Senate Republicans vow to use her successor's confirmation hearings as another forum for criticizing the law.

Democrats hardest hit by anti-Obamacare ads — including Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas — continue to defend the health law when asked, but they generally focus on other topics, campaign aides say.

Republicans need to gain six seats in midterm elections this year to control the 100-member Senate.

Polls don't suggest public sentiment is shifting toward Democrats, said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health. But with at least 7.5 million people enrolled despite last fall's disastrous rollout of insurance markets, Blendon said, Democrats have some strong new material to use.

"Each of the Democratic candidates is going to have to make a calculation on whether or not they can motivate Democrats," Blendon said. "For Democrats to get an advantage out of the law, they have to convince people they have something to lose if the Senate changes hands."

New political problems might arise for the health care law before the Nov. 4 elections. For instance, the individual requirement to carry health insurance remains generally unpopular, and now penalties may apply to millions of people who remain uninsured.

Wire services