President Obama criticized Republicans on Thursday for continuing to push for a repeal of his signature health care law, less than 24 hours after the GOP-controlled House voted to delay both the individual and employer mandates of the law.
"We've got a lot of problems in this country and there's a lot work that Congress needs to do…and yet we're re-fighting these old battles," Obama said.
President Obama walks off the stage to greet people in the audience after speaking about the Affordable Care Act during an event in the East Room of the White House July 18, 2013.(Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)
WASHINGTON — President Obama criticized Republicans on Thursday for continuing to push for a repeal of his signature health care law, less than 24 hours after the GOP-controlled House voted to delay both the individual and employer mandates of the law.
The pair of votes in the House, which have no chance of being approved in the Democratic-controlled Senate, are the latest in more than three dozen votes taken in the House to gut the president's health care overhaul.
In a speech at the White House, which aides had framed as opportunity to highlight the more than $500 million in rebates consumers will be receiving from insurers in the coming weeks as a result of a provision in the law, Obama went after GOP lawmakers for continuing to take aim at the law.
"We've got a lot of problems in this country and there's a lot work that Congress needs to do…and yet we're re-fighting these old battles," Obama said. "Sometimes I just try to figure out why. Maybe they think it's good politics. "
Obama's remarks come as his administration faces a deadline to establish health care exchanges in all 50 states by Oct. 1 and a little more than two weeks after the White House announced that it would delay until 2015 the requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees provide health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty.
While implementation of the law has been bumpy, Obama argues that there are signs that the law is spurring insurance providers to lower prices, as premiums in several states, including California, New York, Oregon and Washington, have dropped significantly since the law was passed.
The Department of Health and Human Services also released a report on Thursday projecting that in 10 states and the District of Columbia health-insurance premiums for 2014 are nearly 18% percent lower than the administration originally projected.
"Today's report shows that the Affordable Care Act is working to increase transparency and competition among health insurance plans and drive premiums down," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.
For Obama's remarks on Thursday, the White House invited families who have benefited from the law's provision, which requires insurers to refund customers when they spend less than 80% of premiums they collect on medical care. Obama was introduced by a Maryland woman who received a refund check from her insurance company last summer for $267 after it failed to hit the 80% threshold.
Obama said that Republicans have ignored early successes of the law, such as the rebate provision, and accused them of trying to make "political hay" as his administration has worked to implement it.
"What I have heard is just the same old song and dance," Obama said. "We're just going to blow through that stuff and just keep on doing the right thing for the American people."
In remarks from the Senate floor before Obama's speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the president's efforts "just another sad attempt by the administration to spin" Americans "into wanting a law they don't."
And House Speaker John Boehner noted that in his home state of Ohio the state insurance department has projected that premiums will rise by an average of nearly $200. Unlike some of the states that Obama cited that are projecting a decrease in premiums, Ohio had opted not to set up its own health exchange and the task will be left to the federal government.
"The law is costing American jobs," Boehner said in a statement. "It's forcing people to give up health plans they like; and it's driving up the cost of care for families across America."
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