WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Tuesday the fact that more than 7.1 million Americans had signed up for health insurance over the past six months showed "the Affordable Care Act is here to stay."

"The debate over repealing this law is over," he declared, mocking critics.

The White House's announcement Tuesday marks a sharp turnaround for a federal campaign to sell the nation on new health insurance from disastrous beginnings six months ago.

The 7.1 million tally is based on the number of people who enrolled for coverage through the new federal insurance marketplace operating in three dozen states by the deadline of midnight Monday, plus enrollments from 14 state-run marketplaces as of Sunday.

Taken together, the enrollment reflects a late rush of consumers seeking coverage. They lifted the enrollment beyond the level that federal officials have believed likely in recent months, having already dialed back expectations to 6 million.

"The share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth in the cost of insurance is down. There's no good reason to go back," Obama said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was decidedly less upbeat about the enrollment numbers, noting that they don't reflect how many people have actually paid for or are using new coverage, nor is it known whether any of the enrollees had coverage previously.


The administration hasn't yet released an updated demographic breakdown of enrollees, such as the number of younger people whose participation is critical to the law's success.

"We don't know, of course, exactly what they have signed up for, we don't know how many have paid. What we do know is that all across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with Obamacare," McConnell said in a statement.

Most public polling shows the law's opponents outnumber supporters, and nearly all surveys show it attracts few backers outside the ranks of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, Obama signed into law legislation to give doctors temporary relief from a flawed Medicare payment formula that threatened a 24 percent cut in fees.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.