just to be able to say it with certainty, it's going to be ok. so many parents, so many families up until now have not been able to turn and say it's going to be ok. these people, our people, the people we grew up with -- these people needed a voice, and you've been that voice. and you still are. i don't think it's an exaggeration to say that, because of your voices, these people are in much better shape because of the affordable care act. you don't need me to case generally, you organized, you got people out, you organized rallies. you helped republican governors in places like arizona, iowa, michigan, ohio, and others to take advantage of the medicaid program expansion.

hat's a big deal. you armed state organizations with facts to counter the noise. you organized teleconferences. you collected 20,000 stories about real lives and got them out to the media. you generated stories in hometown newspapers all across america. you changed the conversation. and i'm here to say thank you. thank you. thank you. and if republican governors and the state legislatures in states of texas, florida, north carolina and others would act responsibly, we could immediately cover another 5 million people with the stroke of a pen. three years ago, a man who has more character in his little finger than most people i have met have in their whole body spoke at this conference, senator

barack obama. he said change does not come from the top down, it comes from the bottom up. and you guys activated the country. you did activate the country, and you got it passed. but you've got to stay at it. we still have a long way to go. it got off to a rocky start. but enrollment is up. 2.2 million americans have selected private plans in health insurance market places. i think you're going to see with the release of figures at the end of this month it's much higher than that. and based on new data released yesterday, more than 6.3 million americans were determined eligible for medicaid. to be fair, to be totally honest, not all these folks are new to the medicaid program because some already qualified before the passage of the act. but 6 million people.

i asked in this aggregate how many would not have been covered but for? we don't have the ability to do that at this point. but they all have peace of mind that comes with high quality health insurance. and as you well know, some states have not taken that opportunity to expand medicaid under aca even though the federal payment at the front end is 100%. as i said before, if the states who haven't acted would just act now, 5 million more would have access to affordable coverage. but as surprising as it may seem, after republicans in the congress have voted to repeal the law 40 times, they still haven't given up on their message. after a disastrous effort of shutting down the federal government they didn't get the message. and i'm confident they're not going to get the message i'm about to deliver to them, but here's the message. we will not go back.

we will not go back. america has turned a page. we will not go back to the days before the affordable care act when preexisting conditions were a barrier to coverage. we will not go back to the days when mental health was not covered. we will not go back to the days when women could pay 150% more than a man for the same coverage. we will not kick 3 million young adults off their parents' policies. we will not go back to the day when patients lying in a hospital bed fighting for their lives are told that, sorry, your coverage is over, we cannot cover you any more. we will not go back. america will not go back. so let me close by saying once again thank you for what you've done. thank you for what we are going to continue to need you to do. and as my grandpop used to say every time he walked out of his house, joey, keep the faith.

and my grandmom would say, no, joey, spread it. spread the faith. god love you all. may god bless and protect our troops. hank you. [applause] >> tomorrow on c-span 3, the thuest commissioner will give his first public speech. he's expected to focus on telecommunications issues. we'll bring you that live. later in the day senators john mccain and christopher mur murphy will lead a conversation about global security challenges. they'll be joined by a senior

nato officer and other security experts. live at 4:15 p.m. eastern. >> hillary clinton's career began right inside the building. where she was a professor and she taught classes such as criminal law, criminal procedure, trial procedure, and the prison projects. hillary was a well educated ivy league law school grad that had worked in ds. at that time nixon had been impeached before hillary taught her first class. >> tonight, q&a with documentary film maker.

after that, question time at the british house of commons with prime minister david cameron. later, a ,> this week, jehane noujaim the director of "the square." >> jehane noujaim, when was the first time he thought about being a documentary producer? bei went to college to