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Speaking from the Rose Garden Tuesday afternoon, President Obama touted 7.1 Obamacare signups. The deadline to signup was yesterday. "The idea that everybody in this country can get decent healthcare, we are on our way," Obama said. "7.1 million Americans have now signed up for private insurance plans." The President did not distinguish between first time health insurance holders and those who signed up due a loss of insurance under new Obamacare rules. He also failed to give a definition of "enrolled." Obama argued Obamacare has made healthcare more accessible for millions of Americans and that the law has stabilized...

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As the White House and news headlines celebrate Obamacare “enrollment” hitting the 7 million mark, a secretive study from the RAND Corporation reportedly suggests as few as 858,000 previously insured Americans have actually paid for their new policies. President Barack Obama announced an “enrollment” total of 7,041,000 on Tuesday during a press conference, heralding it as proof that the Affordable Care Act is successful and here to stay. The White House has not provided answers to key questions about the numbers, including how many enrollees were previously insured, how many Americans have actually paid their first month’s premium or how...

Janis Finer, 57, a popular primary care physician in Tulsa, Okla., gave up her busy practice two years ago to care full time for hospitalized patients. The lure? Regular shifts, every other week off and a 10 percent increase in pay. Just as millions of Americans are obtaining insurance coverage through the federal health law, doctors like Finer are voting with their feet. Tired of working longer and harder because of discounted insurance payments and frustrated by stagnating pay and increasing oversight, many are going to work for large groups or hospitals, curtailing their practices and in some cases, abandoning...

With Monday's deadline for enrolling in an insurance plan past, no other factor -- including race, income, personal ideology, gender, or education -- is as relevant to Americans' opinions on the Affordable Care Act as their party affiliation. This remains the foremost predictor of whether an individual will disapprove of the ACA. These results stem from an aggregated set of surveys in which Gallup measured approval of the ACA. The data span August 2013 to March 2014 and include interviews with 13,797 U.S. adults. Overall support for the ACA remained low throughout this period, even as the various components of...

April 1, 2014 5:27 PM Obama Takes Victory Lap at Obamacare Presser, Says 'Debate Is Over' By Josh Encinias President Obama said Obamacare has made the American health-care system “a lot better” and even though it has been “messy at times, it is progress” in a press conference Tuesday afternoon. The White House said 7.1 million people have signed up for Obamacare as of today. The president told reporters that there will be days when HealthCare.gov doesn’t work, ”I guarantee it,” but that it isn’t news anymore. “The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is...

George Washington wanted Obamacare, Pelosi says [VIDEO] Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi emerged into the sunlight April 1 to applaud a rush of sign-ups for Obamacare, and immediately described it as the long-sought goal of Gen. George Washington and the nation’s Founding Fathers in 1787. “It is really so heart warming for those of us who worked so hard [to make sure] many more people in our country would have access to healthcare,” she told reporters at the stakeout position just outside the West Wing portico. “There are those critics, bumps in the road, but they’ve only been turbulence. They...

President Obama: Today is the deadline that is not really a deadline to purchase Obamacare, or what Nancy Pelosi insists on calling the Affordable Care Act. I call it Pelosicare, but a dead rose by any other name would be just as rancid. Mr. President, you have given waivers to unions and others who contributed to your reelection. Meanwhile, ordinary Americans like me are told that if we do not purchase your insurance, we will be fined at least $95 this year. President Obama, let me tell you what world leaders are telling you all over the globe and what...

President Barack Obama is planning a Rose Garden appearance Tuesday afternoon as sign-ups under his health care law surpassed 7 million.

Deaf Californians looking to sign up for health insurance coverage through the state’s Obamacare exchange were directed Monday to a hotline offering to connect them with “hot ladies.” As some Californians learned on the final day of open enrollment, one of the phone numbers provided by Covered California, the state’s online exchange, was 1-888-899-4500, one digit off from the real number, 1-888-889-4500. So instead of being connected to an Obamacare representative, some hearing-impaired Californians were instead sent to an “adult entertainment” phone service. “Welcome to America’s hottest talk line. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press one...

In theory, open enrollment ends tonight. No longer can individuals without any excuse whatsoever wait to purchase health insurance policies on the Exchanges that will be in effect during 2014. I very much expect we will hear numbers over the next few days such as 6.5 million or 7 million bandied about as “enrollment figures.” Many supporters of the ideas behind the original ACA who have managed to tolerate its metamorphosis over the past year will herald those numbers as signs of success. And, indeed, those numbers are considerably better than many had feared. I, for one, am prepared to...

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said health-care enrollment "definitely saw the Galifianakis bump" after the president's appearance on "Between Two Ferns." "Certainly Zach reaches a certain audience." HealthCare.gov has also seen the procrastinator's bump today, ahead of the 11:59 p.m. deadline for enrollment, crashing the site again for old time's sake. Extensions aside, the administration still plans to hit its goal of 7 million sign-ups.

Obamacare, the plan purportedly created to provide health coverage for the uninsured, has enrolled just 1.7% of America's 48.6 million uninsured. News of the disastrous numbers comes as nervous Democrats and President Barack Obama, ahead of the November midterm elections, did their best on Monday's enrollment deadline to put a positive spin on the deeply unpopular Obamacare program. The latest Associated Press poll finds that Obamacare has now hit an all-time low approval rating of just 26 percent. The White House now claims an Obamacare enrollment figure of six million people. However, according to The New York Times, at least...

As the Obamacare enrollment period draws to a tentative close – and you never know when the period will close, given President Obama’s apparent willingness to manipulate the calendar repeatedly – horror stories about the Affordable Care Act mount. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) originally maintained, “All of [the horror stories] are untrue, but they’re being told all over America”; he now says that he never called such horror stories lies. It’s a smart backtrack, given the wide variety of Obamacare horror stories that continue to pile up day after day. Across the nation, premiums are blowing up; according...

Monday, March 31 marked the deadline for enrolling in health insurance under Obamacare. In California, it is also a public holiday, Cesar Chavez Day, honoring the labor organizer and civil rights leader. That means the state government is closed, as are many local agencies. And so--partly--is Covered California, the state Obamacare exchange, though there are Californians who might need help enrolling before the deadline. The Covered California website has had its problems, and March 31 was no different. When this reporter tried to test the system by applying for individual coverage, the site would not work. Luckily, the site has...

Merkley is a dedicated liberal who fits a state increasingly defined by its biggest city, the insufferably hip and progressive Portland. How can the GOP hope to take back this seat? One Republican challenger appears to be focusing on Merkley's vote and support for Obamacare. Monica Wehby, a pediatric neurosurgeon, has a new ad that juxtaposes news coverage of Oregonians who have had health insurance plans canceled to Merkley's promise in 2009 that under Obamacare, citizens would "have the choice of sticking with the plan you have."

Says one progressive strategist: "This is a coming divide for the Democratic Party." Bracing for a rough midterm-election outcome, Democrats aren't waiting until Election Day to start blaming one another for the party's problems. Anticipating the possibility that Republicans will flip the Senate, the finger-pointing game is already underway between the party's warring factions.

Healthcare.gov, the troubled website set up to help Americans choose and enroll in a health care policy, crashed early Monday morning, on the final day to begin the process to apply for health insurance. According to a CNBC story, the website crashed around 3:20 a.m. (ET) Monday. It was  still down as of 7:40 a.m.Monday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- commonly called Obamacare -- before facing a fine.According to the White House, more than 6 million people have signed up since the enrollment period began on Oct. 1. According to...

The Obama administration says a new technical problem briefly prevented last-minute users from signing up on the government's health insurance website. The new problem comes as traffic is surging on deadline day.