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We could have done a better job explaining what was in the Affordable Care Act, but when you talk to people and you don't label it, people get really excited about what's in it. It is going to make a big difference for people.

I have profoundly mixed feelings about the Affordable Care Act. What I love about it is its impulse. It attempts to deal with this intractable problem in American health care life, which is that a significant portion of the population does not have access to quality medical care.

If Obamacare is so wonderful, why is it that its loudest advocates don't want to be subject to it?

Obamacare is the wildly complex Rube Goldberg contraption it is because getting the legislation through Congress required so many political tradeoffs and so many unavoidable deals with so many vested interests. But that's no excuse.

I am of the view that the Affordable Care Act will be a transformative piece of legislation that can lower the cost of health care in the United States - perhaps our greatest fiscal obstacle - and help all Americans lead healthy and productive lives, free from worry that a single illness could mean ruin for an entire family.

I have been outspoken on my opposition to 'Obamacare,' and I don't buy the line that our Medicaid program, or any function of government, has reached maximum efficiency.

That's what the Affordable Care Act is all about. It's about filling the gaps in employer-based care so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new business, we'll still have coverage.

Presidents and speakers for over 100 years had tried to pass affordable care for all Americans. It was challenged over and over. The Supreme Court declared it constitutional.

Enacting elements of the Affordable Care Act isn't backtracking on core principles, but rather understanding that new ways to help make health care affordable builds stronger businesses and saves struggling hospitals. And that is a very attractive offer.