Former President Barack Obama joined President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Tuesday for a press conference commemorating the 12th anniversary of Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act and laying out future plans for health care reform, CNN reported.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Harris said as she took the podium to introduce Obama. She then touted the ACA's success in providing health care to over 30 million Americans and called for legislation empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and making permanent the increased health insurance subsidies included in the 2021 COVID-19 relief bill.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Obama called Biden an "extraordinary friend and partner" with whom he accomplished much, but said "nothing made me prouder" than passing the ACA.
"The reason we're here today," he continued, "is because President Biden, Vice President Harris, everybody who's worked on this thing understood from the start that the ACA wasn't perfect," though he added that, despite its flaws, it was "to quote a famous American, a pretty big deal."
At a signing ceremony for the ACA in 2010, Biden was caught on a hot mic whispering to Obama that passing health care reform legislation was "a big f--king deal."
"Feels like the good old days," Biden said as he took the podium. He then explained his plan to close the ACA's so-called "family glitch," which prevents some workers who add family members to their policies from qualifying for ACA subsidies.
Biden concluded the ceremony by signing an executive order that, according to CBS News, directed "agencies to do everything within their power to make health care more accessible and affordable." Before signing it, Biden warned Obama about hot mics.
-
Film reviews: ‘Bugonia,’ ‘The Mastermind,’ and ‘Nouvelle Vague’feature A kidnapped CEO might only appear to be human, an amateurish art heist goes sideways, and Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ gets a lively homage
-
‘Not all news is bad’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Book reviews: ‘Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity’ and ‘Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice’feature An examination of humanity in the face of “the Machine” and a posthumous memoir from one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, who recently died by suicide
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
‘This estrangement from death has beget euphemisms’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
