Obama calls on GOP to offer proposals to improve ACA, not repeal it

President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on Tuesday./ Bloomberg

President Barack Obama called on Republicans in his State of the Union address to stop efforts to repeal the health care reform law, and instead offer proposals to improve the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“If you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people and increase choice — tell America what you would do differently. Let's see if the numbers add up,” he said during his Tuesday evening address.

But he strongly criticized numerous GOP efforts to repeal the law.

“Let's not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that's already helping millions of Americans,” he said.

President Obama also touted what he described as benefits of the health care reform law, including the 3 million adult children under age 26 who have gain coverage through their parents' employment-based plans, and the 9 million people who have enrolled in plans offered through public exchanges and in the expanded Medicaid program.

Congressional Republicans, though, gave a different assessment of the health care reform law.

“No, we shouldn't go back to the way things were, but this law is not working. Republicans believe healthcare choices should be yours, not the government's,” said Republican Conference Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who delivered the GOP response.

In the retirement benefits area, President Obama said he will direct the U.S. Treasury Department to draft a proposal to help employees to save through what he called “MyRA.”

“Americans should be offered access to an (individual retirement account) on the job, so they can save just like everyone else in this chamber,” he said.

MyRA, an acronym for my retirement account, would guarantee a “decent return with no risk of losing what you put in,” he said.