HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced that Obamacare is getting even stronger as 500,000 people accessed their accounts on the ACA website yesterday, and 100,000 uninsured Americans signed up.
Video of HHS Secretary Burwell announcing the new numbers:
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Transcript from Meet The Press:
SYLVIA BURWELL:
So with regard to that, yes I do. Yesterday, we had 100,000 folks submit applications.
CHUCK TODD:
New applications?
SYLVIA BURWELL:
Submit applications.
CHUCK TODD:
Okay.
SYLVIA BURWELL:
And there were over 500,000 people who logged in effectively yesterday as well. So I think the vast majority of people coming to the site were able to get on and do what they were intending to do.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you have an issue with people getting onto their old accounts? Is that an issue that you’ve identified or is this just user error?
SYLVIA BURWELL:
So with regard to that, we think the vast majority were able to. That’s what we see in that 500,000. In some of those examples, we’re tracking them down. That’s part of what I said we were going to do and what we want to do. Some people forget their user names. Some people are renewing their passwords and other things, if there were any other technical problems. Our customer service folks are ready and able to help people. There were over 100,000 calls yesterday.
The cold hard reality for Republicans is that it doesn’t matter what they say about the ACA. It doesn’t matter how much they try to scare people into not signing up. The American people want affordable private health insurance. Republicans can’t stop the ACA. Their worst nightmare is coming to life. The law is working well, and more people who lack health insurance are signing up.
Republicans will be taking a very unpopular step if they mess with the ACA. Public polling has always shown a divide between support for “Obamacare” and support for the ACA. The Republican Party did a good job of demonizing the term Obamacare. The American people are opposed to Obamacare, but they like what the ACA does. According to Gallup, people who already enrolled in the marketplace strongly approve of their health insurance.
The law is working, and people like it. If the ACA survives the Supreme Court challenge to the legality of the subsidies, there will be no stopping it. The American people love their Obamacare, and with each new person that signs up the odds decrease that Republicans will ever be able to repeal the law.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
