President Barack Obama challenged Republicans who oppose Obamacare to come up with an alternative at an event today celebrating the fifth anniversary of the law. In a subtle jab at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who has zealously fought to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama said, 'folks who are basing their entire political agenda on repealing the law, you’ve got to explain how kicking millions of families off their insurance is somehow going to make us more free.' Cruz led a 2013 filibuster in the Senate that he hoped would result in a successful vote to defund the health care reform law, making it easier to legislatively dismantle. Scroll down for video . President Barack Obama challenged Republicans who oppose Obamacare to come up with an alternative at an event today celebrating the fifth anniversary of the law. To 'folks who are basing their entire political agenda on repealing the law, ' he said, 'you’ve got to explain how kicking millions of families off their insurance is somehow going to make us more free' He and his allies were eventually defeated in that effort after a two-week stand off with Democrats, who held the majority in the upper chamber at the time. But he has continued to fight to have the law nullified and named repeal a top priority in a speech announcing his candidacy for higher office on Monday. The White House was won't to react that afternoon to Cruz's entry into the 2016 brawl but it did rib him over his campaign promise to throw out the sitting president's signature policy achievement. 'Well, there was a presidential candidate who ran in 2012 promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and that campaign pledge didn’t work out very well for him,' Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, told reporters, referring to that year's Republican nominee for president, Mitt Romney. In a twist of irony, Cruz said Tuesday that he would sign his family up for Obamacare. Previously included in a plan in the name of his wife, a Goldman Sachs employee, Cruz's family will lose its health care soon as she leaves her job to join him full time on the campaign trail. Earnest resisted taking a shot at Cruz over the matter on Wednesday, saying that if he does apply for a plan via the government marketplace, 'he will find is what millions of Americans across the country have found,' which is that there are good quality healthcare plans available  because of the health care reform law. While others have pointed out the irony of the situation, 'I am seeking to merely point out the common experience that it seems that the Cruz family may be sharing,' Earnest told a reporter pressing him on the issue. At the event on Wednesday, Obama said critics of the law need to explain 'why forcing millions of families to pay thousands of dollars more will somehow make us more secure. Or why we should go back to the days when women paid more for coverage than men' and a 'preexisting condition locked so many of us out of insurance.' The president said that because of the law, 'If you’re a woman, you can no longer be charged more just for being a woman. 'And you know there are a lot of women. Like more than 50 percent,' he said, eliciting laughter from attendees of the White House-sponsored event for private and public sector health care workers. 'This law is also saving lives - lives that touch all of us,' he said. 'It’s working despite countless attempts to repeal, undermine, defund, and defame this law.' Defending the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare after its biggest backer, the president, Obama said, 'It’s not the “job-killer” that critics have warned about for five years.' In fact, after it was passed, 'businesses began the longest streak of private-sector job growth on record,' he said, noting that the economy has added 12 million new jobs in the last 60 months. 'It’s not the fiscal disaster critics warned about for five years. Health care prices are rising at the slowest rate in nearly 50 years, which has helped cut our deficit by two-thirds since I took office,' he contended. Before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, health care costs were projected to be the 'single biggest driver' of new deficits. 'Today, health care is the single biggest factor driving those projections down,' he said. 'We have been promised a lot of things these past five years that didn’t turn out to be the case: death panels, doom. A serious alternative from Republicans in Congress,' he said. The comment was a subtle jab at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who has zealously fought to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Cruz, pictured here on Monday at his campaign kick off, led a 2013 filibuster in the Senate that he hoped would result in a successful vote to defund the health care reform law, making it easier to legislatively dismantle . Obama said the reason that Republicans are having such a difficult time coming up with an alternative to his plan to reform the healthcare system is because it was 'pretty much was their plan before I adopted it.' Repeating past claims, Obama said the ACA is 'based on conservative, market-based principles developed by the Heritage Foundation and supported by Republicans in Congress, and deployed by a guy named Mitt Romney in Massachusetts to great effect. 'If they want to take credit for this law, they can. I’m happy to share it,' he added. The president acknowledged that his administration has 'made our share of mistakes since we passed this law.' 'But we also know beyond a shred of a doubt that the policy has worked,' he said. 'Coverage is up. Cost growth is at a historic low. Deficits have been slashed. Lives have been saved.' 'So if anybody wants to join us in the spirit of the people who have put aside differences to come here today and help make the law work even better, come on board,' he said, trolling Republicans. To GOP lawmakers who want to get rid of the law, he pointed to 28-year-old Obamacare recipient Anne Ha, a Philadelphia business owner who was present for his remarks, made from the South Court of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is located next door to the White House. 'She thought what many of us think when we're young...that she was too young, too healthy to bother with health insurance. She went to the gym every day. She ate healthy, looks great, felt invincible. Why pay a doctor just to tell her she’s okay?' Ha bought healthcare insurance from the federal marketplace that was created by Obamacare at the behest of her mother, he said. And four months later she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, for which she underwent chemo therapy and surgery. 'Today, she’s recovering. She looks great. She’s here with us at the Whte House. She invited me to her wedding,' he said. 'I told her you don't want the President at her wedding.' Because Anne was covered under Obamacare and had her cancer diagnosed early, he said, she is now healthy and will be able to follow through with a September wedding to her fiancé Tom. 'And she’s convinced him to get covered, too,' Obama stated. The president said he and First Lady Michelle appreciated Ha's invitation to her wedding, but 'as I said, we have to mag people at the wedding, and it spoils the fun.'
President made a subtle jab at Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who has zealously fought to repeal the Affordable Care Act . 'Folks who are basing their entire political agenda on repealing the law, you’ve got to explain how kicking millions of families off their insurance is somehow going to make us more free,' he said . Critics also need to explain 'why forcing millions of families to pay thousands of dollars more will somehow make us more secure,' he said .