Obama apologizes for promise on health law

WASHINGTON - President Obama apologized Thursday to Americans who were losing their health insurance despite his repeated promises that they wouldn't, an unusual act of contrition for a president who has come under heavy criticism for misleading the public.

"I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me," Obama said in an interview with NBC News. "We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and that we're going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."

The president said he had asked his staff to see whether there was an administrative fix to preserve insurance for some Americans who might have lost their coverage and did not qualify for subsidies that would make new policies affordable.

"I've assigned my team to see what we can do to close some of the holes and gaps in the law," he said, "because . . . my intention is to lift up and make sure the insurance that people buy is effective, that it's actually going to deliver what they think they're purchasing."

A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the president's policy team has been investigating the possibility of an administrative solution since the problem surfaced late last month as a significant issue.

The problem has arisen for those who buy insurance on the individual marketplace, up to 15 million people. About half of those are probably being adversely affected by the Affordable Care Act, the aide said.

Presidents rarely say "I'm sorry" in public, even when acknowledging missteps. Thursday's apology, coming at a time when the president and his administration are under intense criticism over the rollout of the health-care law, highlights the extent to which it has become a political liability for the White House. On Tuesday, Obama's approval rating dipped below 40 percent for the first time in two years, according to a daily tracking poll by Gallup.

The fact that Obama had said repeatedly that insured Americans would not have to change plans has become a new line of attack for congressional Republicans and an Internet meme, as news organizations have strung together video clips of the president's comments on the subject over the last four years.

The disconnect between Obama's assurances and the reality for some consumers emerged last month as a flood of people learned that they could not keep plans they had signed up for on the individual market. Although this group represents a small fraction of the total number of insured Americans - about 5 percent - their stories garnered national attention and provided fodder to opponents of the law.

Obama defended the law several times over the course of the NBC interview, saying many people now receiving cancellation notices were in "subpar plans" and would likely benefit from new options - although they haven't been able to see them because of problems with the website HealthCare.gov.

He acknowledged, "Obviously, we didn't do a good enough job in terms of how we crafted the law. . . . That's something that I regret." But he only did so after Chuck Todd, NBC's chief White House correspondent, pressed him on the point.

Over the last two weeks, the president and his aides have emphasized that the cancellations stemmed largely from decisions by insurers, rather than from the law.

In a speech in Boston on Wednesday, Obama said that letting people keep their plans "was part of the promise we made," but that part of the law's purpose is to help consumers upgrade their plans. On Monday night, he suggested that the promise really applied only to people who bought their plans before the health-care overhaul was enacted.

Several insurance officials, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue, said in interviews that the way the regulations were written after the law's passage gave them little choice but to issue the cancellations. They said the old policy could continue in effect only if very few changes were made and the price remained about the same.

Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voiced little sympathy for the president after his interview aired Thursday.

"If the president is truly sorry for breaking his promises to the American people, he'll do more than just issue a half-hearted apology on TV," McConnell said in a statement. "A great place to start would be to support the [Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ronald] Johnson bill that would allow Americans to do what the president promised in the first place: keep the plan they have and like."