President Barack Obama on Friday touted his health care law's benefits for women, whose response to the program the White House believes will be key to its success.
"Moms so often put themselves last," Obama said at an event in the White House East Room which was tied to Mother's Day. This is "particularly true when it comes to things like health care."
The event represented the beginning of a campaign that the White House will undertake to spread information and get mothers to encourage their adult children to enroll in health care "exchanges."
There is "so much misinformation" surrounding the law, the president said Friday, that "people may not have a sense of what the law actually does."
Hispanics and African-Americans will be major target groups for enrollment in the program officially know as the "Affordable Care Act", which is set to begin in October, a White House senior administration official said on Friday. But the White House believes young people are the single most important group for the success of the health care exchanges, which will be established by states and the federal government, the official said.
Stability for the program and the cost of insurance premiums is dependent upon young people: 2.7 million healthy 18- to 35-year-olds not currently covered, to be exact, according to the official. Participation by these young people will offset the higher costs of covering seniors. But the challenge is getting young and presumably healthy people to sign up.
That's where the White House says women come in.
Mothers will be key in encouraging their sons and daughters to sign up, officials said on Friday.
The White House will conduct outreach at the local level, in part, by using tools from the campaign trail, but will also rely on centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, hospitals, community health centers, local churches and community leaders to get their message out, officials said.
Overall, the Congressional Budget Office projects 7 million enrollees in 2014.
But many Republicans have issued dire predictions about implementation of the health care law, and some Democrats have added their voices to those expressions of concern.
Obama conceded Friday that there have been "mistakes and hiccups" already and specifically identified the original release of a 21 page application as a misstep. Following a widespread negative reaction to the lengthy form, the White House released a three page version because, Obama said, the White House realized "we can do better than that."
The White House believes they will have the upper hand in Republican attacks on Obamacare after people enroll. Then, Republicans will look like they are trying to take health care insurance away from Americans, the official said, instead of an abstract concept.
Republicans are continuing their assault on the controversial program with House Republicans planning a vote next week on whether to fully repeal the law.
?The president?s health care law is a train wreck for men and women alike, and that?s why a majority of Americans support Republican efforts to repeal it to protect their health care-- and their jobs," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement on Friday. "Next week, the House will act to repeal the law that is increasing health care costs, reducing access to quality health care, and making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. The entire law should be repealed so we can enact a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care that starts with lowering costs and protecting American jobs.?
The vote is largely political theater.
Republicans have staged dozens of votes to repeal the law in whole or in part in the three years since the measure passed into law. And additionally, if a repeal measure did pass the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic-controlled Senate would kill the effort.
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