President Obama told a crowd in Miami on Thursday that part of the reason some Americans are unhappy with the Affordable Care Act is that the media gives his signature health care law a negative image.
"And as I said, part of this is, you know, healthcare is complicated," Obama said. "Think about this speech. It's been pretty long and you're just–you're thinking, 'Wow, I just wanna take a picture with the president or something.'"
The crowd at Miami Dade College roared with approval.
The president then jumped into criticizing the way that people report on Obamacare.
"Even reporters who cover this stuff, and they do a good job, they're trying to follow all of the debate. But a lot of times, they just report 'premium increases,'" he said.
He did a hand signal that was meant to show the dramatic headline followed by a confused look.
"And everybody thinks, 'Wow, my insurance rates are going up, it must be Obama's fault,'" the president said.
The crowd laughed.
"Even though you don't get health insurance through Obamacare, you get it through your job," he said.
The crowd laughed again.
Obama said that even though premiums have increased, they increased at a slower rate than they would have had Obamacare not been implemented.
"You know, or suddenly you're paying a bigger co-pay and 'Ah, thanks, Obama,'" he said. "And it's well–no, I had nothing to do with that."
The crowd continued to laugh.
Obama then said part of the problem is that healthcare is complicated and the way that it gets reported is dramatic.
"So part of it is this is complicated, the way it gets reported–you know, it–there's a lot of, you know, hysteria around anything that happens," he said.