Today, the President and Vice President met with over a dozen Senate Democrats to discuss the progress that’s been made to extend health care coverage to more Americans and to hear their input on existing challenges with implementation of the Affordable Care Act. During the meeting, the President discussed ongoing efforts to fix HealthCare.gov and improve the experience of Americans looking to enroll in coverage. The President emphasized that he shared the Senators’ commitment to ensuring that Americans who want to enroll in health insurance through the Marketplaces are able to do so in time for insurance coverage to start as early as January 1st, and throughout the open enrollment period which goes through March 31. He also discussed ongoing efforts to ramp up communication and education outreach to consumers who have received or might receive letters about how their individual market plans might be affected. In addition, the President also reiterated that the Administration is working to protect the privacy and security of consumers and to ensure that online Marketplace applications are protected by stringent security standards, with ongoing testing to help safeguard personal information.
The President also asked the Senators for input on how implementation of the law is impacting their constituents, and expressed appreciation for their ongoing help to ensure the law works best for families and businesses and all Americans can take advantage of the benefits of the law.
Senators who attended the meeting were:
• Senator Mark Begich
• Senator Cory Booker
• Senator Chris Coons
• Senator Dick Durbin
• Senator Al Franken
• Senator Kay Hagan
• Senator Mary Landrieu
• Senator Jeff Merkley
• Senator Mark Pryor
• Senator Jack Reed
• Senator Jeanne Shaheen
• Senator Brian Schatz
• Senator Mark Udall
• Senator Tom Udall
• Senator Mark Warner
• Senator Michael Bennet