During a talk to supporters on Monday, President Obama modified his "if you like your plan, you can keep it" promise that has been fiercely condemned by Republicans in Washington, USA TODAY reported.
While trying to garner support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obama repeatedly told people that if they were content with their insurance plan, they were allowed to keep it. However, he did not mention that the plan must fall within the new law in order for it to remain.
"Now, if you had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed," he said at the Organzing for Action event on Monday.
"The bottom line," Obama said, "is we are making the insurance market better for everyone."
Immediately following the insurance cancellation notices people received, anti-Obamacare Republicans began attacking the health care law and accused the president of lying to Americans.
In response, ACA officials say no one should be surprised that 5 percent of consumers in the individual insurance market will need to switch plans as insurance companies adjust their plans to meet the mininum coverage requirements.
Obama also expressed his frustrations with the criticism he received for people ultimately receiving better coverage.
"People are acting like this is some new phenomenon," Obama said. "Every year there was churn in this individual market. The average increase was double-digits on premiums in the same market, with or without the Affordable Care Act. People were getting, oftentimes, a very bad deal."
The president was joined by other speakers at the event like Brad Woodhouse, president of the progressive advocacy group Americans United for Change.
"The bugs in Obamacare will be fixed, but there is no cure for Obamacare derangement syndrome," Woodhouse said, referring to glitch issues which have also be widely criticized. "We didn't shrink from this fight in the darkest and most difficult hours through the bill's passage, and we will not shrink from this fight now."
