Obama added that he was open to some changes. Obama draws line on ACA changes

President Barack Obama reiterated today that he would block Republican efforts to repeal his signature health care law.

“On health care, there are certainly some lines I’m going to draw,” the president said during a lengthy White House news conference. “Repeal of the law I won’t sign. Efforts that would take away health care from the 10 million people who now have it and the millions more who are now eligible to get it, we’re not going to support.”


Obama added that while he is open to some changes, he would not sign any “that undermine the structure of the law.” He said that includes the individual mandate, which is financially tied to the provision banning insurance companies from rejecting people with preexisting conditions and critical for the provision to work.

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The president said he would be open to measures that would improve the Affordable Care Act.

“What I will remind [Republicans] is that, despite all the contention, we now know that the law works,” Obama said, noting that health spending has grown at slower rates since the ACA was passed in 2010.

As the ACA’s second open enrollment season approaches on Nov. 15, Obama said his administration is “really making s

ure the website works super well. … We’re double and triple checking it.”

White House aides have repeatedly pledged that HealthCare.gov would work better than it did upon launch last fall, but they’ve also acknowledged that the website would not be perfect.