Obama to local leaders: Sign up people for health care

A new enrollment season has started under the federal health care law, and President Obama is urging local elected officials to help out.

Obama hosted a conference call Tuesday with some 200 state and local officials, urging them to help enroll health care recipients in their communities.

"The President encouraged these leaders put information in their offices, open facilities to host Navigators and organizations that will provide enrollment assistance, send information out through their mailings and newsletters, and keep developing creative ways to get the people they serve the information they need," the White House said in a statement.

The White House said communities are encouraging health care sign-ups in a variety of ways, from newspaper op-eds to press conferences to "enrollment summits."

The new enrollment period comes amid new challenges to the law known as the Affordable Care Act.

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Republicans who have won control of the Senate and expanded their majority in the House have vowed to roll back parts of the law, citing people who have seen their premiums rise or their policies canceled.

The financing of the health care law is also the subject of a new Supreme Court case.

During the conference call with local leaders, Obama cited an e-mail from a woman in Georgia who said she and her husband "were able to find a plan through HealthCare.gov that saved them $13,000 on their premiums this year alone," the White House said.

"Over the weekend," it added, "there were nearly 300 enrollment events and summits across the country this, including at churches, community colleges, shopping malls, festivals, and other community events. Over 5,000 people attended these events."