Obamacare Hits 20 Million Enrollees
His tenure at the White House is winding down, but it's not keeping President Barack Obama from celebrating the milestones of his administration. The Affordable Care Act is one of Obama's signature bills, and he recently labelled it a success after the healthcare law marked a milestone with 20 million enrollees.
Landmark Number
According to a report from Newsweek, the United States President visited Milwaukee, Wisconsin and announced the recent accomplishment of the law. He was introduced by a man named Brent Brown, who said that he was a Republican who didn't vote for Obama in the elections but now credits Obamacare as a law that saved his life.
"Today I can announce that thanks to the law, 20 million more Americans now know the security of health insurance," Obama said to the crowd.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that the number included coverage from the expansion of the Medicaid program, health insurance marketplaces and policies that allowed parents to keep their children as part of their private insurance plans for a longer amount of time.
The last estimate was 17.6 million insured Americans back in September 2015.
Republican Resistance
Even with the impressive figures, Obamacare has faced remarkable opposition from the Republicans as they had attempted to repeal the law over the years, according to a report from New York Times.
"Congressional Republicans have tried and failed to repeal Obamacare about 60 times," Obama told the audience at the Midwest city. "They have told you what they would replace it with about zero times. If they got their way, 20 million people would have their insurance taken away from them. Twenty million people!"
The president added that up to 129 million people in the U.S. with pre-existing conditions now would not be charged more or denied health care coverage due to their prior illness. About 140 million Americans also have access to free preventive care including mammograms.
"So your insurance is better than it was even if you don't know it, even if you didn't vote for me," Obama said good-naturedly, adding that the city was able to get an upgrade through the health care act.
Healthy Communities
While he celebrated the success in Milwaukee, the world leader was in the city to reward around 38,376 people with private health insurance through the law. This is about 75 percent of the uninsured eligible people in Milwaukee and a reward for winning the Healthy Communities nationwide competition.
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