i worry just listening to your intro about the near-disaster. it was sobering just to get a flashback on that. look, we re very happy about the enrollment numbers. they re terrific. and that s a great day for america. these are the kind of numbers that make america a better place. and so the fact that so many people wanted insurance, not because they faced a penalty, because no one did right now, but because they wanted insurance, and more than 2 million people came to the exchange, is terrific. what we re focused on is to make every day as good as yesterday and today have been. there were a lot of apprehension about people having problems at doctor s office, at pharmacies, gaps with insurance companies. we had a very good day yesterday. we had a very good day today. thanks to, basically, every pharmacy in the country, cvs, walgreens, walmart, riteaid, krogers, the small town, independent pharmacist, they re all working to make this transition as smooth as we can.
yesterday wasn t a disaster thanks to the insurance companies, thanks to the pharmacies, thanks to the hospitals, thanks to doctors. today wasn t a disaster. but every year, health plans go through this transition, people switch. and every year, there are problems. so we re working very hard to make sure it s as smooth as possible, that people don t fall through the cracks. if somebody has a problem, they don t think they re insured, they should call their insurer. if that doesn t work, we have an 800-number. we have people standing by, 24 hours a day. it s 1-800-318-2596. phil, you worked on this, you were one of the chief architects of the legislative strategy to get this passed. you were working, i imagine, hundred-hour weeks to get this passed. you left the white house, you basically got pulled back in, like some sort of gangster movie. you couldn t get out. you re back in the white house. do you ever wonder, like, i m going to be 85 years old, defending the freaking affordable c
transition as smooth as we can. but, just to finish the thought, when we get to tomorrow, we have no guarantee it will be like today. that s our focus. we want to make this transition go as well as it can for every american. i want to clear up, in case folks aren t tracking this particularly, right? the worry is specifically that people show up at a doctor s office or a pharmacy, saying, hey, i got obamacare. i went to healthcare.gov, i signed up and got confirmation, and they are not in the system. and i think that worry is compounded, i would like to hear your thoughts on this, by the fact that the right and republicans and the mainstream media so trumpeted the individual stories of a few canceled plans and created such an absolute storm around that. you re worried that the same thing could be re-run with a few anecdotes of people having problems. absolutely, chris. we prepared for yesterday, because as you remember, just a week ago, there were a lot of stories talking about how