Obama offers defense of Affordable Care Act in Profile in Courage speech

— -- Former President Barack Obama offered a full-throated defense of the Affordable Care Act at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston Sunday evening, where he was accepting the Profile in Courage award, the same week House Republicans finally passed a plan they say will replace his signature legislative achievement.

Obama used the opportunity to highlight the Democrats who voted for the ACA and then lost their seats in Congress, noting that they chose to look out for Americans as a whole, rather than taking the politically convenient route.

"These men and women did the right thing, the hard thing, and theirs was a profile in courage, and because of that vote, 20 million people got health insurance that didn't have it before," Obama said.

The 44th president was joined at the gala by a host of former administration officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy.

Obama also offered a number of allusions to optimism in what he called "a time of great cynicism about our institutions."

"I have said before that I believe what Dr. King said -- that the arc of the moral universe bends, but it bends towards justice," Obama said. "I have also said that it does not bend on its own, but it bends because we bend it, and we put our hand on the arc and we move it in the direction of justice and freedom and equality and kindness and generosity. It does not happen on its own."

Winners of the Profile in Courage Award in prior years include Presidents George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford, Sen. John McCain, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, among others.