WASHINGTON — Days after President Trump boasted in the White House Rose Garden about the House’s vote to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the law’s biggest champion, Barack Obama, left the jibes virtually unanswered Sunday night during his first major address since leaving the presidency.

Mr. Obama, accepting a “Profile in Courage” award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, offered only a glancing reference to Thursday’s repeal vote and the efforts by Mr. Trump to unwind his legacy.

The former president told an audience of supporters that when it came to health care in America, “the great debate is not settled, but continues.” He said he hoped that members of Congress, “regardless of party, are willing to look at facts and speak the truth, even when it contradicts party positions.”

Mr. Obama defended the 2010 health measure, his signature domestic achievement, as the right thing to do, and he praised Democratic members of Congress for voting to pass it despite the risks to their political future.