Obama to go on three-week healthcare blitz

President Obama will launch a healthcare blitz on Tuesday with an event touting the benefits of the law.

The president’s event at 2:30 p.m. will look to refocus attention on areas where the law has succeeded, while selling the public on signing up for coverage despite headlines dominated by problems with the HealthCare.gov website.

{mosads}According to a White House official, the president will look to “focus attention back on the core principles of reform that have been lost in the attention on the website, and invoke the successes that are already flowing from the law and what it means for the millions of Americans who are already directly benefiting.”

The event launches a three-week drive designed to focus attention on the law’s benefits ahead of the Dec. 23 enrollment deadline. 

The White House will tout a different benefit of the law each day until the enrollment deadline, with Democratic lawmakers, campaign committees, and advocacy organizations looking to echo that sales pitch.

The president will highlight lower-cost preventive care on Wednesday, protections for those with preexisting conditions on Thursday, and the slowed growth of healthcare costs on Friday.

He’ll also sit down with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews for an interview at American University on Thursday.

Politico first reported the blitz.

Polls suggest the president and his allies have a steep hill to climb in terms of winning public support for the law.

In a survey released last week from CNN and ORC, nearly four in 10 Americans said the law was a failure and 45 percent said problems with the program would never be fixed. Some 58 percent said they did not support the legislation.

Republican officials on Monday welcomed news that the administration wanted to turn the focus back to the embattled program.

“The president wants to talk exclusively about Obamacare for the next three weeks. Twist my arm,” tweeted Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

On Tuesday, Obama also plans to discuss “ongoing” repairs to HealthCare.gov at the event, which will feature supporters and individuals who have personally benefited from the law.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the website had been “significantly improved” after round-the-clock work to fix technical problems before a self imposed Dec. 1 deadline.