President Barack Obama blasted both efforts to repeal his healthcare law and to replace it with Republican-backed alternatives.
“I'll work with anybody who wants to work with me to continue to improve our healthcare system and our healthcare laws,” Obama said at a Maumee, Ohio, campaign rally Thursday. “But the law I passed is here to stay.”
He criticized repeal efforts because of the anticipated effects, including reduced insurance coverage and the return of certain insurance underwriting practices. Without naming the plan, Obama also criticized a Republican proposal to reduce Medicare's long-term costs.
“We're not going to allow Medicare to be turned into a voucher system,” he said.
Congressional Republicans and Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, have renewed their calls for repeal and replacement of the 2010 healthcare overhaul since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld much of it June 28.
Obama also urged an end to the political fight over the healthcare law and focusing on expanding insurance coverage. At least five Republican governors have promised to block any Medicaid expansion in their state, which is the method through which the law was designed to insure at least 16 million more people. The court decision allowed states to decline the expansion without the threat of the federal government eliminating all of their Medicaid funding.