By ALEXANDER BURNS, KYLE CHENEY and EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE | 2/25/14 5:03 AM EST
politico.com
With the battle over Obamacare moving from Washington to the states and a deluge of ads battering the law on TV, Democratic governors delivered a message to President Barack Obama this week: We need help.
Four years out from passage of the Affordable Care Act, it’s state executives in Obama’s party who may be bearing the heaviest load when it comes to making the law work and selling it to voters. They’ve grappled with their own glitch-ridden enrollment sites and fought their own legislatures over Medicaid expansion.
Now, many of them are running for reelection with the ACA hanging over their heads — and only a limited effort from national Democrats and their president to reverse the consistently negative public opinion of the law.
Asked if the White House had done enough to win over the public on the ACA, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick replied: “The short answer is no.”
Patrick said he didn’t mean that as a “critique” of the president, but he’s not the only governor who would like to see the White House do more.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told Obama at a closed-door meeting of Democratic governors Friday that the president should do more to play up health care innovations unfolding at the state level. Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said he had counseled senior White House officials to highlight efforts to control health care costs, rather than simply telling now-familiar stories about patients with pre-existing conditions who now have access to health insurance.
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