Obama Symbolically Re-Enrolls in Obamacare

President Barack Obama re-enrolled in health insurance coverage for 2015 through his eponymous healthcare law, at least symbolically, the White House said Tuesday.

Obama, who is in Hawaii on a two-week vacation for the holidays, purchased a bronze-level health plan in the Washington, D.C. marketplace a year ago and re-upped for 2015, a White House official said. But as president, Obama is provided with employer-provided coverage, in his case through the White House Medical Unit and its military healthcare professionals.

“As we said last year, the act of the President signing up for insurance coverage through the DC exchange is symbolic since the President’s health care will continue to be provided by the military,” the official said. “But, he was pleased to participate in a plan as a show of support for these marketplaces which are providing quality, affordable health care options to millions of people. The President selected a bronze plan last year, and he remains on that plan.”

Last year, aides to the president enrolled him in the exchange personally, rather than using the then-troubled Affordable Care Act website HealthCare.gov, due to the complicated nature of the president’s situation. As president, some of Obama’s personal information is not readily available through traditional means in government databases. Obama also only purchased coverage for himself, and not his family.

In 2010, as Republicans sought to use legislation to force Obama to participate in the exchanges, the White House said Obama would do so voluntarily. “The president will participate in the exchange,” then-White House spokesman Reid Cherlin told USA Today.