Obama: Affordable Care Act is working despite problems

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday defended his decision to extend hardship exemptions to some individual policyholders under the Affordable Care Act.

Asked at a White House news conference whether the decision undermines the individual mandate requirement in the ACA, the president said the exemptions were a "common sense" approach to solving a limited problem and "don't go to the core of the law."

He said 85 percent of the U.S. population "whether they know it or not" has benefited in the last three years from provisions of the healthcare reform law.