WASHINGTON: Hundreds of thousands of Americans rushed to buy President Barack Obama’s new health insurance plans on Monday, prompting a victory lap from a White House that paid a steep political price for its greatest achievement.
The scramble to sign up under Obama’s health care law at the end of a six-month enrollment window caused website glitches and long lines at on-the-spot enrollment centers. But Republicans renewed a vow to repeal the law, which they say costs jobs, handcuffs small businesses and represents a government power grab in the private health care market. Over two million people visited the Healthcare.gov website on Monday and another 840,000 called telephone enrollment centers, a White House official said, terming the latest figures unprecedented. It remained unclear, however, how many of those people went through the whole process of securing Affordable Care Act insurance plans.
“I signed the #ACA so millions could know the peace of mind that comes with health insurance,” Obama wrote in a tweet.
In a rare moment of triumph in Obama’s so far grim second term, senior White House officials saw the deadline day rush as vindication after the disastrous rollout of the health care website late last year. (Agencies)