Attendees included Democratic members of Congress who had worked on the passage of the law more than a decade ago — and helped turn back repeated efforts by Republicans to repeal the law in the years since 2010.

Obama recalled that both Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the late Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrangled the votes to help turn the bills into law, and acknowledged the Democrats who lost their seats did so thanks, in part, to the early unpopularity of the law. And, he conceded, some of those wounds leading into the 2010 midterms were self-inflicted, including the failed initial launch of HealthCare.gov.

“I intended to get health care passed even if it cost me reelection. Which, for a while, it looked like it might,” Obama said, adding that passing the sweeping overhaul meant “members of Congress took courageous votes, including some who knew that their vote would likely cost them their seat.”

“Republicans tried to repeal what we had done, again and again and again,” Obama noted, giving a shout out to, among others, former Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, who successfully defended the law before the Supreme Court.

Obama has made a point to let his former vice president shine during the first couple years of his presidency, but Biden gave his former partner all the credit on Tuesday.