April 1 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said the enrollment of 7.1 million people for coverage under his signature health-care law serves as a rebuke to its critics, including Republicans who repeatedly have tried to repeal it.
"The Affordable Care Act hasn't completely fixed our long- broken health care system, but this law has made our health care system a lot better," Obama told an audience of administration officials, lawmakers and other supporters in the White House Rose Garden. "The debate over repealing this law is over."
The tally of those who signed up for coverage by the midnight close of the open enrollment period doesn't include all figures from 14 separate state exchanges on the final day or people who started the process and weren't able to finish because of website outages or technical difficulties.
The 7 million enrollees matches the initial estimates for insurance sign-ups under the law that were scaled back after technical flaws with the federal website when it went online in October. The Congressional Budget Office in February projected that 6 million people would enroll.
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