Dave Ross interviews President Obama about the Affordable Care Act

KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross was among five journalist from around the country who were invited to the White House to discuss the Affordable Care Act with President Barack Obama. Despite the purpose of the visit &#8212 to discuss Obamacare &#8212 Ross got a couple of extra questions in about other current events and even got some advice for the Seattle Seahawks.

The president knows that there are pockets of America where people have not signed up for the Affordable Care Act. He said Seattle is one of them. Obama is putting forth a challenge to communities around the United State to see who can sign up the most people previously without a healthcare plan.

Dave Ross Mr. President, it is a pleasure to meet you and I recognize this place. Usually, Martin Sheen sits over there, I understand.

POTUS: He was term limited. He’s been gone for a while.

DR: Just don’t let that “House of Cards” guy get in. Before healthcare, there seemed to be some genuine confusion in the briefing room today about whether you believe a bomb brought down that plane. And some doubt as to whether Egypt or Russia would be truthful about the causes behind it. Do you believe a bomb brought down that plane?

POTUS: I don’t think we know yet. Whenever you’ve got a plane crash, first of all you’ve got the tragedy, you’ve got &#8212 making sure there’s an investigation on site. I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board. And we are taking that very seriously. We know that the procedures we have here in the United States are different than some of the procedures that exist for inbound and outbound flights there. We are going to spend a lot of time making sure our own investigators and our own intelligence community figures out exactly what’s going on before we make any definitive pronouncements. But it is certainly possible that there was a bomb on board.

DR: Has Russia stirred up a hornets nest?

POTUS: That’s a big question and I figure that it probably doesn’t have anything to do with healthcare.gov.

DR: Probably not. (laughs) We’ve had the briefings and it’s all been pretty persuasive. There’s a lot to be said for signing up for Obamacare. But you’ve had a problem getting 18 to 34-year-olds to sign up. And part of it seems to be that politicians are campaigning against it, like in Kentucky. Does it tick you off when you hear a politician say, “this has to be repealed and it is hurting people more than helping?”

POTUS: Sometimes it’s frustrating. But then I’m reminded of the history of major social movements and progress we’ve made in the past. There was fierce resistance to social security. It started off slow and picked up steam and now everybody takes it for granted. Medicare &#8212 people were confident this meant socialized medicine and the system would be a complete wreck. But now if you told even the most ardent anti-government person they were going to have their Medicare eliminated, they would vote you out of office. Some of this tends to be the pattern.

DR: Do you think this is really unrepealable?

POTUS: I won’t say “unrepealable.” Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll level with the facts. Over 17 million people have gotten healthcare that didn’t have it before. Our uninsured rate is at the lowest level we’ve seen. It dropped about 45 percent since Obamacare was signed. We know that healthcare inflation &#8212 the pace at which overall healthcare costs are going up &#8212 are the slowest they’ve been in the past 50 years; over the last several years. We’ve made enormous progress. Now, it works much better where you’ve got a governor and a state Legislature that is cooperative and wants to see uninsured rates cut. And [they] are out there actively letting people know that eight out of ten folks can qualify for financial assistance if they sign up for Obamacare. That seven to eight out of 10 folks will find that their overall costs for insurance is as low as $75 or less.

DR: Is that message not out there?

POTUS: We are out there publicizing it, but we know that there are still millions of people that qualify for assistance that haven’t gotten it. We are now entering into what’s called “the open enrollment period.” Now is the time to sign up for health insurance if you want it next year. If you want it to start on January 1, you’ve got to sign up by December 15. But the open enrollment period lasts until January 31. Go to healthcare.gov. If you’ve already signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, through Obamacare, then you should still go and see if there are some new offerings that may be able to cut your costs.

DR: I got that message. But I have to tell you, as somebody who has done talk shows for a long time, there are people who think it is unforgivable that you have done this. And what’s your message to them? Maybe talk to the people in Kentucky where this was made an issue, and they apparently voted for the new governor based on his opposition to your plan.

POTUS: Well, there were a lot of factors in Kentucky. And politics in America is politics. What I would say to somebody who is listening who doesn’t like the Affordable Care Act is that it has insured millions of people; look at their testimony. It has cost far less than even I estimated it was going to cost to the federal treasury. So, in a lot of ways, it is working better than we predicted. And if you don’t have health insurance, then just don’t take my word for it. Go look for yourself. If you don’t have health insurance and you get sick, you might lose your house. You might go bankrupt. You might have your family have to be in the emergency room because you didn’t get a checkup and catch a disease early enough. You don’t have to like me to say to yourself, “It makes sense to see if this is a good deal for me.” I can’t tell you how many letters I’ve gotten from people that say, “I disagree with you on just about everything. Didn’t like the Affordable Care Act. But I got to tell ya, I went ahead and signed up anyway. It turned out that I got sick a couple years later and you saved my life. And I still don’t like you, but I got to give you credit because this thing is working.” And that’s all I’m looking for, is people going to healthcare.gov and looking for yourself. We know that there are tons of folks in the Seattle area that qualify for financial assistance, can get good, high-quality insurance at an affordable rate and are not availing themselves of it yet. And the facts really do speak for themselves in this situation. You don’t have to listen to any political spin. Just see if it works for your family. If you’ve already signed up, do some shopping because you can save $500-600. We are putting out a challenge to 20 communities around the country where we know there are a lot more eligible people than have signed up so far. The more people who sign up &#8212 I may come and visit the community that signs up the most people who are eligible and haven’t signed up yet. Let’s see how Seattle can do. You guys tend to be pretty competitive. The Seahawks are still on the hunt despite some tough losses.

DR: Yes we are on the hunt. You have any advice for Russell Wilson and the team?

POTUS: I think, now that Chancellor is back, they just got to play confident and stay focused in the fourth quarter. There have been some tough losses there at the end.

Follow Dave’s trip to Washington D.C.