Obama to speak in Nashville area Wednesday about ACA

• Wednesday visit will mark president%27s third trip to Middle Tennessee in last year and a half.
• Other visits included a stop at Casa Azafran to discuss immigration policy in December.
• In January 2014%2C the president spoke at McGavock high.

President Barack Obama is set to speak about the Affordable Care Act in the Nashville area on Wednesday, making what will be his third swing through Middle Tennessee in the past year and a half.

According to a White House official, the president plans to "discuss how we can move forward and continue building on the progress made under the Affordable Care Act, which has helped more than 16 million Americans gain health insurance."

It is unclear whether Obama will speak in Nashville or in a nearby Middle Tennessee suburb or town. Further details, including a location, are expected in the coming days.

"I am so pleased that President Obama is coming back to Nashville, " U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, said in a statement. "It's always an honor to receive a President, and we are looking forward to showing him Southern hospitality on Wednesday."

The trip follows a 6-3 Supreme Court decision this past week in favor of the Obama administration in the battle over tax credit subsidies for health insurance as part of the controversial health care law.

In visiting Tennessee, Obama will travel to a state that has opted against expanding federally subsidized health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income Tennesseans, made available by the law.

State Senate committees in the Republican-dominated legislature twice voted to defeat Gov. Bill Haslam's Insure Tennessee program this year — once during a special legislative session in February and then again in March. The full House and Senate never took up the plan.

The trip follows Obama's visit in December to Nashville's Casa Azafran, an immigrant community center. There he discussed his executive order to provide temporary legal status and work permits to more than 5 million immigrants who are in this country illegally.

In January 2014, Obama gave a speech at McGavock High School in which he touted Metro Nashville Public Schools' Academies program.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.