Obama's day: Defending the health care law

President Obama spends Tuesday defending his health care law against challenges both political and legal.

Obama will attend the Catholic Hospital Association Conference to "discuss what health care reform has meant to millions of Americans," says the White House schedule.

That includes "improved and affordable coverage options for individuals," as well as "new rights and protections for all consumers, rising quality of care, and the transformative impact on the economy as a whole," the White House says.

In conjunction with the speech, the White House released an updated report on the law's effects in each of the 50 states. The White House said that, a little more than five years after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, more than 16 million once-uninsured Americans have gained coverage.

Congressional Republicans say the law has led to higher costs and poorer coverage for many. Some of the party's presidential candidates are calling for a rollback of the new health care system.

Obama's speech also comes less than a month before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the latest challenge to the health care.

The high court will decide whether federal insurance subsidies are available to all Americans, or just those in states that created separate insurance marketplaces. An adverse ruling could mean that up to 6.4 million people could lose coverage because they are ineligible for subsidies.

Obama offered his view of the case during a news conference Monday after the G-7 summit in Germany, saying all qualified Americans should be eligible for the subsidies.

"This should be an easy case," Obama said." Frankly, it probably shouldn't even have been taken up."

If the court rules differently, Obama said he will call on the Republican-run Congress to change the law: "Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision."