Obama using Hollywood TV interview to defend health law

by Jordan Fabian - 06/10/15 8:04 PM ET

President Obama on Thursday will use a television interview to make the case his healthcare law has helped save lives, just weeks before it faces a major legal test.

Obama will sit down with Jerry Penacoli, a correspondent for the syndicated entertainment news program “Extra” who says ObamaCare helped him receive life-saving cancer treatment.

Penacoli plans to “discuss his own personal story with the president and how the Affordable Care Act quite literally saved his life,” according to a statement from the show.

{mosads}The White House scheduled the interview as it ramps up its defense of ObamaCare in advance of a Supreme Court decision that threatens to unravel the law.

That case, King v. Burwell, will decide whether federal health insurance subsidies for nearly 6.4 million people are legal.

Obama has expressed confidence the court will rule in his favor, but his administration has said there is no easy fix if the court decides to strike down the subsidies.

Provisions in the law eliminating lifetime limits on insurance benefits helped Penacoli receive treatment for thyroid cancer and melanoma “without losing his life savings,” according to “Extra.”

Earlier this week, Obama expressed disappointment with the myriad legal challenges and political attacks the law has faced.

“It seems so cynical to want to take coverage away from millions of people, to punish millions with higher costs of care and unravel what’s now become part of the fabric of America,” he said during a speech to the Catholic Health Association on Tuesday.

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