Kathleen Sebelius Predicts The Public Will Warm To Health Reform, John McCain Vows To Keep Fighting

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says she believes people who remain skeptical about the massive health care reform that has passed Congress will feel better as they learn more about it.

Interviewed the morning after Democrats pushed it through on a 219-212 vote, Sebelius suggested that public resistance to the legislation largely is the result of statements Republican opponents and insurance industry figures have made about it.

She told CBS's "The Early Show" she thought "what's been going on for the better part of the year is a lot of attempts to confuse and scare Americans." Sebelius said people "will be happy" with the legislation once they learn more about how it changes the rules governing how insurance companies operate.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain says Democrats who championed the historic health care bill that passed the House haven't heard the last of the issue, predicting reprisals at the polls and in the courts.

Interviewed Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America," McCain repeated House Republican assertions that the transformative legislation amounts to a "government takeover" of health care.

The Arizona Republican declared that Republicans "will challenge it every place we can," and called the measure, approved on a 219-212 vote, "terribly wrong for America." He said he was repulsed by "all this euphoria going on" and argued that "outside the Beltway, the American people are very angry. They don't like it and we're going to repeal this."

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said his late father, Sen. Edward Kennedy, would have been very proud to see the culimination of his dream of virtual universal health care for the country.

Kennedy, who was also interviewed Monday morning on "Good Morning America," said his father "always believed that our country was about expanding opportunity for more and more Americans. ... As he said, this is the unfinished business of America."

The Rhode Island Democrat, who has said he will not run for re-election, called the bill which passed the House Sunday a "consumer protection" measure that will help middle-class Americans who are too well off to qualify for Medicaid, too young to get into Medicare and not rich enough to buy any coverage they prefer.

Comments

[its miller time]

06:42 PM on 03/23/2010

For all of you who think the sky is falling and the world is coming to an end picture this...

McCain in the Oval office waking up from his afternoon nap and Palin in her office studying
with a tutor before her next public appearance. The sky would have fallen and world
most definitely would have come to an end (see I can exaggerate too, the difference being
I know it's not really happening)

Imagine this scenario, you are a participant in a game show about geography and spelling
and the prize is 2 million dollars, which two out of the four would you pick to be on your team?

Hypothetical of course...”

[hdohighdesertobserver]

03:28 PM on 03/23/2010

Painted into a corner by their own misanthropy and poor planning, the GNoP refuses to let the paint dry so they can get out of the room. Instead, astoundingly, they are still painting.

[user168]

01:53 AM on 03/23/2010

To John McCain, grapes are forever sour.

[bleedingheart9]

02:47 AM on 03/23/2010

When his campaign was in the tank in '08, wasn't that his rallying cry - we're gonna fight!? How's that fight going, John? Sorry to go all hopsie/changie on ya.

[lesterbud]

04:07 PM on 03/23/2010

So soon we forget.
Or more accurately - so soon old John forgets, that during his camaign, his platform included:

# McCain supports the following principles regarding healthcare:A Patient’s Bill of Rights, including appeal mechanisms when claims are denied, & the right to sue when claims are denied.
# Expanded eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts
# In favor of limits on the amount of punitive damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
# Expanded prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
# Tax credits to individuals and small businesses to offset the cost of insurance coverage.
# Put patients and doctors in charge of their own health care, not HMO bureaucrats
# Improve access to affordable health care
# Choice of doctors to meet health care needs
# Guaranteed access to emergency care
# Continuity of care when employers change
# Doctors must be able to communicate openly and fully with their patients
# A free and fair grievance process in the event an HMO denies medical care, including relief in the courts.

Most of these planks are contained in the HCR.
But now he is against his own campaign rhetoric.

[almost homeless]

01:40 AM on 03/23/2010

Unfortunatly the repugniklan criminal enterprise will do everything they can to screw things up as much as they possibly can just to make the otherside look bad. They couldn't care less about the country or it's people, they only care about being in power and feeling like studs. They are complete imbeciles. This is true for 70-80% of them.

The poilitcal parties, especially the repugniklan party, are ironically the most important entities in the country that shouldn't be allowed to accept bribes, yet they are the only ones allowed to. We need drastic change in this country, we're like two canoers figthing back and forth with our only ores while floating down stream 100 feet from a 1000 foot water fall.

[vanmungo]

12:05 AM on 03/23/2010

This bill is a STEP BACKWARDS, much worse than no bill at all because it strengthens rather than loosens the chokehold of the very profiteers who have plundered the system into chaos and dysfunction.

The benefits for the insurance industry are numerous and ironclad: a conscripted “market” of tens of millions of Americans who are now forced to buy their extortionate, gap-filled, lousy policies—the kind that drive so many families into bankruptcy with their deductibles, copays, and coverage gaps—all with no limits on price gouging .

There is not one “benefit” of this bill for ordinary Americans that is not riddled with loopholes http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/fact-sheet-the-truth-abou_b_506026.htmll).

SYSTEMWIDE health-care costs, already bleeding the economy white, will continue to skyrocket--the CBO estimates apply only to costs to the federal government, not the costs to consumers and to the economy as a whole. The estimated savings of $13 billion a year are a droplet when you consider that Medicare for ll would save $400 billion per year--$4 TRILLION over ten years!

At least 20 million Americans will be left with zero coverage--tens of millions will be shunted into the underclass, second-rate coverage of Medicaid.

This bill is a reactionary horror.

See this Bill Moyers interview with Dr. Marcia Angell of Harvard:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03052010/watch3.html

MEDICARE FOR ALL NOW

[its miller time]

06:18 AM on 03/23/2010

The odds that you will feel any change in the way you "ordinary" people get your heath care is pretty slim.

It was designed for the uninsured and people who are being discriminated against. The other stuff for ordinary people was secondary.

Unfortunately I'm not "ordinary" because I have a disability. The person with a chronic illness is not "'ordinary". The child who has never been insured because of a preexisting condition is not "ordinary" etc. There are benefits that affect us right away. There are benefits that might save some of the 45,000 that would die otherwise this year.

People on Medicaid are not the "under class of society", and there will soon be "10's of millions" more. is a little exaggerated.

Did you ever consider the possibility that the Public Option/Single Payer/ Medicare have a better chance passing as a bill or amendment on their own?

Did you ever consider that this bill was not handled well right from the beginning and to change it again and or kill it was not an option?

A bill is a flexible piece of legislation that can be improved upon for the next 20 years if need be.

You have no way of knowing what deals were or were not struck with corporation so to assume "ironclad" is just a speculation. New legislation that will reign in the Insurance CO. and
hit all of the other takers where it would hurt the most.


Joanne - Optimism us it or loose it

[vanmungo]

12:50 PM on 03/23/2010

If you have a pre-existing condition, you won't even see a benefit until 2014--if the provision doesn't get stripped by then. And the penalties are so feeble that widespread noncompliance is likely--not to mention the built-in loopholes that allow the insurers to wriggle out of this vaunted and illusory "benefit.

It is well documented that Medicaid provides a typically lower quality of medical care than privately covered or Medicare patients--so, yes, Medicaid beneficiaries constitute a kind of medical undercless.

Finally, there's a difference between optimism and self-delusion.

[ReedYoung]

11:53 PM on 03/22/2010

If Dems want to sweep the House and Senate elections in November, all they need to do is support strong financial reform and keep the conversation about Republican obstruction to strong financial reform. Do they want to win?

[SystemLink]

10:46 PM on 03/22/2010

Good. All Democrats should be rejoicing that Republicans are going to fight this because they will YET AGAIN lose every step of the way and YET AGAIN have egg on their faces when this becomes law and EVERYONE realizes that this is not the end of the world

The more people see that it isn't a complete government takeover, they will laugh at the ridiculous lies they were told by republicans and understand how utterly pathetic it was that they were scared into not liking the bill

[Mensch99]

10:50 PM on 03/22/2010

I hope that you are right, but I fear that the far-right will now turn their attention to whipping up a frenzy over immigration reform.

[El Espectro]

12:35 AM on 03/23/2010

Gotta' love the golden oldies.

[Mensch99]

10:45 PM on 03/22/2010

Venting, venom, vitriol, vituperation and vilification lead unfortunately to violence.
This debate is taking an ugly turn.

[Tom Joad]

10:41 PM on 03/22/2010

"Attempts to Confuse And Scare Americans' Are Over"

...ahhhh...no. just listen to rants today from McPOW, Boehner, McConnell, and the Resigned Former Half-Term Governor of Alaska...

[Mensch99]

10:58 PM on 03/22/2010

You are so right. They are just warming up for the immigration frenzy.

[satanlite]

09:46 PM on 03/22/2010

wow this threads a nutball boiler!

[Eldienne]

10:39 PM on 03/22/2010

The trolls are trippin' cos they couldn't kill the health care bill.

[wme1234]

09:34 PM on 03/22/2010

KarlM....seems to be using the word Malcontent alot.

Lets look at its definition

–adjective
1.not satisfied or content with currently prevailing conditions or circumstances.
2.dissatisfied with the existing government, administration, system, etc.
–noun
3.a malcontent person, esp. one who is chronically discontented or dissatisfied.

Im actually pretty satisfied

[satanlite]

09:49 PM on 03/22/2010

Yeah me too.

[gsmp]

09:19 PM on 03/22/2010

Just for all you spouting about facist/communist bull. I was in Europe in '69 and saw the REAL CONCRETE bricked-up buildings and the sadness of the people in east Berlin. Even the air had a feeling of sadness. That's when I learned to appreciate my country with all it's flaws.

[Ken Maddox]

09:14 PM on 03/22/2010

I saw my parents receive needed medical care because of Medicare. I have seen my child's children receive needed care because of Medicaid. Now I will see people that would have gone bankrupt except for HCR receive needed care. America is a great nation. Freedom from worry that your family will be able to receive need health care is the new right of citizenship. America is a great nation.

[gsmp]

08:58 PM on 03/22/2010

Please send it to my house, Ken. I'm a single malt scotch drinker, but I love a first class mimosa.

[justsayno]

08:21 PM on 03/22/2010

We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.-Thomas Jefferson

[RainbowPhoenix]

08:22 PM on 03/22/2010

And having access to healthcare contributes to having life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[justsayno]

08:02 AM on 03/23/2010

They did not have our consent - they may have had yours, but not the majority of the people
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;

[gsmp]

08:56 PM on 03/22/2010

Now we have just and Karl. My dog is house trained, them - not so much. I won't even waste time checking their profiles.