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RECAP: President Obama Makes Announcement On Health Care

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President Obama announced this morning that Americans who have had their health insurance plans canceled because of his Affordable Care Act can keep those plans for another year if they wish.

Those cancellations — most effective on Jan. 1 — have sparked intense criticism of the ACA, in part because the president pledged many times that if Americans liked the health plans they had, they wouldn't have to give them up under the terms of his program.

Obama also said that problems with the HealthCare.gov website and with the cancellations of some American's health insurance policies are "on me," NPR reported.

Several times in remarks at a White House news conference, the president turned to football analogies.

"We fumbled the rollout on this health care law," he said at one point.

The decision was designed to ease the impact on millions of consumers who have received cancellation notices in recent weeks, and also to try to redeem a presidential promise that anyone who wanted to keep his coverage under the law would be allowed to do so, the Associated Press is reporting.

We streamed NPR's live coverage this morning. Here's continuing online coverage from NPR.

The president was in Dallas recently to defend the Affordable Care Act -- read KERA's earlier coverage.

Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.