President Barack Obama helped a pregnant woman who began to faint during his speech about health care reforms today, joking 'That's what happens when I talk too long.'
Mr Obama reached out to help prospective Affordable Care Act beneficiary Karmel Allison who was standing directly behind him as he discussed the glitches of the new healthcare website in the Rose Garden of the White House.
After the press conference had been going for sometime, Allison became unsteady and started to lose consciousness. At that point, the President tued around and helped catch her before she actually fainted.
'I got you. You're OK,' Mr Obama told her. The woman was escorted away for medical assistance as the crowd applauded.
Allison later tweeted: 'I'm ok world- just got a little lightheaded.Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me! And good thing this pregnant diabetic is pregnant :)'
Allison was invited to the event at the White House because she has suffered Type 1 Diabetes since she was nine years old and stayed on the same insurance, despite constantly rising costs, because she was scared she'd struggle to find a new plan that would cover her. She said she recently began researching her options on CoveredCA and has described her elation at finally feeling equal to others, including her healthy husband, when it comes to accessing coverage.
According to a biography on website A Sweet Life, to which she contributes, Allison was bo in Southe Califoia, and went to UC Berkeley.
She now lives in San Diego with her husband, where she 'is loving the sunshine, working in computational biology at the University of Califoia, San Diego, and leaing to use the active voice when talking about her diabetes. In her spare time, Karmel enjoys people, Milan Kundera, rock climbing, and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.'
Allison became dizzy towards the end of a defiant speech during which Mr Obama said he was mad about problems with the new health care website, but argued that the Affordable Care Act as a whole is working as planned.
While Healthcare.gov 'hasn't worked as smoothly as it was supposed to work,' Obama said during the White House speech that once-uninsured Americans have signed up for coverage and are receiving benefits.
'The product -- the health insurance -- is good,' Mr Obama said. 'The prices are good. It is a good deal.'
Facing attacks from Republicans and other critics of Obamacare, the president said his health care team is reaching out to tech experts to help fix massive website problems that have hampered the rollout of his landmark piece of legislation.
'Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should,' Mr Obama said, 'which means it's going to get fixed.'
Aside from the website, Mr Obama said the new health care law is providing consumer protections and benefits for millions of Americans, including mammograms and birth control services. He told stories of now-covered Americans who had once been denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions.
'The essence of the law, the health insurance that's available to people, is working just fine,' Mr Obama said.
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