Eight million people have signed up for health care through new insurance exchanges and the proportion of younger applicants has increased, President Barack Obama said Thursday, according to Reuters.
"This thing is working," Obama said of his signature domestic achievement, Reuters reported.
Obama also said 35 percent of enrollees are under 35 years old, suggesting that in the final weeks of enrollment, the administration managed to sign up higher numbers of younger, healthier people who are critical to the law's viability, according to Reuters. The most coveted age group comprises those between 18 and 34 years old.
White House officials said that for the 36 states where the federal government is taking the lead, 28 percent are in that age group, which is a step in the right direction from March, when the administration said just 25 percent were 18 to 34, Reuters reported.
Although the first year's open enrollment season for the exchanges closed on March 31, the administration is still tallying the number of total enrollees, according to Reuters.
States managing their own exchanges have been slower to report data, and some Americans who started applications before the deadline were given extra time to complete their enrollment, Reuters reported.
"They still can't bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working," Obama said of health care critics who want to appeal the new law, according to Reuters. "The longer we see the law benefiting millions of people, the more we see accusations that the law is hurting people being completely debunked."
As Obama's health law begins to look more viable, Democrats have been seeking to change the political debate from one about repeal to one about fixing lingering issues with the law, Reuters reported.
Obama said it's "absolutely possible" to make improvements, but that it would require a change of attitude from Republicans, but election-year posturing and the GOP's reluctance to be seen as embracing "Obamacare" make than an unlikely proposition, according to Reuters.
