WASHINGTON â President Obama and congressional Democrats, seizing on the good news of an improving health care website and rising enrollments, on Wednesday highlighted parts of the law that are popular with the public and reminded Americans, and the lawâs opponents, of what would be lost if the Affordable Care Act were repealed.  As part of that political counteroffensive, which began this week, Democratic congresswomen challenged Republicans to present an alternative that would provide free preventive health services for the 105 million Americans who have already received them under the law. At the same time, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee singled out about 60 House Republicans, accusing them of plotting to take away immunizations for children, cancer screenings and mammograms.  The presidentâs aides said that with fixes in place online, they hoped a daily barrage of more positive messages about the health care law during the next several weeks â some to be delivered by Mr. Obama personally â would help refocus attention on its benefits. Mr. Obama addressed a White House Youth Summit meeting on Wednesday, and on Thursday he will talk about how the law prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing medical conditions.  âEvery day, there will be something coming out of the White House,â said one official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.  White House officials and congressional Democratic leaders said the effort was intended to get rank-and-file Democrats out of the defensive crouch they had been in for the past two months by countering the barrage of negative stories from Republicans. The push comes amid reports of a surge in enrollments since the administration announced improvements in the performance of the federal marketplace. About 29,000 people selected insurance plans on HealthCare.gov during the first two days of December, 3,000 more than the total who signed up over the whole month of October, according to people familiar with the numbers.  The battle over the presidentâs signature domestic achievement is far from over, but this week, for the first time since the rollout of HealthCare.gov on Oct. 1, Democrats seem prepared to fight.  Three weeks ago, House Democratic âstrike teamsâ initiated a daily morning conference call to go over health care messages. On Wednesday, more than 40 congressional aides, including Senate aides and administration officials, had joined.  House Democrats have begun passing along positive stories in their districts â of constituents obtaining insurance for the first time and gaining access to preventive care â during coordinated morning speeches that have become dueling anecdotes from the health care wars. On Thursday, members will focus on pre-existing conditions; next week, the theme is Medicaid expansion.  Even some Republicans are grudgingly saying that the health care law is already too established for a wholesale repeal, and with thousands of uninsured signing up daily, that option grows more distant each week.  âItâs not in dispute that many Americansâ lives are being disrupted in an important way by this law,â said Representative Scott Rigell, Republican of Virginia. âIs it also true that some Americansâ lives have gotten better? Yes, and to not acknowledge that is to deny reality.â  The health care law, he said, needs âmore of a course change than a course reversal.â  But even with the glimmers of good news, the law faces enormous challenges. A poll conducted last month and released Wednesday by the Harvard University Institute of Politics found that a solid majority of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 â a constituency crucial to the success of the health law â disapproved of the law and among the 22 percent of that age group who did not have insurance, only 29 percent said they would definitely or probably enroll.  The Obama administration was counting on seven million enrollees by the end of the first enrollment period in March, a number that was supposed to ensure a safe mix of sick, older people and young, healthy ones. Because of problems with the federal insurance exchange and the negative publicity around the rollout, the total is likely to be well short of that.  Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the administration needed to be enrolling close to 100,000 people a day to meet its target. Because state-based websites are doing better, other calculations put the necessary number closer to 40,000 a day, but few are suggesting the goal of seven million is within reach.
Building on better news about the Affordable Care Actâs website, President Obama and congressional Democrats have put a new strategy into effect, spreading the word about the lawâs benefits.