President Barack Obama will aim to redirect the conversation about HealthCare.gov and the health care reform law in a Tuesday speech, emphasizing its benefits for Americans and warning about the dangers of repealing it.
It’s yet another reboot of the White House’s messaging campaign, a few days after the administration declared the insurance website fixed. The speech is the start of a three-week push, according to Politico, which first reported the White House’s plans. That would take it up to Dec. 23, the last day people can enroll in a health plan that starts in January.
Obama plans to highlight the improvements to HealthCare.gov, according to a preview of the speech from a White House official, but he’ll also assert that the law has already benefited millions of people. If past experience is any indication, those featured benefits could include allowing kids to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26 and forcing insurance companies to spend more money on medical claims.
“He will also focus attention back on the core principles of reform that have been lost in the attention on the website, and invoke the successes that are already flowing from the law and what it means for the millions of Americans who are already directly benefitting,” the official said.
Beyond touting Obamacare’s upside, the president will also hit Republicans for their repeated attempts to repeal the law and pledges to fight it in the future. By focusing on the law’s already tangible benefits, he’ll argue that repealing the law could do real harm.
“As the President has repeatedly said, he wants to work with anyone who shares our interest in implementing and improving this law – but repealing it and going back to the way things used to be would be the wrong direction for our country and the middle class families who are already benefitting,” the White House official said.
