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Obama, White House boosting US health law
Source: Agencies |
September 23, 2010, Thursday
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US President Barack Obama sought yesterday to reintroduce his historic health care bill to skeptical American voters who do not like or understand it six months after it became law.
Just six weeks before midterm congressional elections expected to punish Democrats, the president surrounded himself in a suburban Washington backyard with people who benefited from the law - a hemophiliac fearful of lifetime coverage limits that will now be eliminated, a senior citizen who got help with her heart medications.
Acknowledging that the US economy is the foremost concern, Obama nonetheless insisted, "Health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore." Presidents had tried to reform health care for nearly a century. Most Americans receive private insurance through their employers.
Obama highlighted some new reforms that take effect at the six-month mark today, including new coverage for preventive care and young adults being able to stay on their parents' health care plans until age 26.
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart," one woman present, Norma Byrne, told the president, explaining she was benefiting from the law's provisions that are closing the prescription drug coverage gap in a health care plan for the elderly.
Such gratitude is not the norm. A new AP poll finds just 30 percent of Americans in favor of and 40 percent opposed to the 10-year, nearly US$1 trillion bill to extend health coverage to 32 million uninsured. Another 30 percent were neither in favor nor opposed. The poll also found a high level of misunderstanding of what's actually in the bill.
Obama acknowledged he himself bears some responsibility for that.
"Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country," the president said.
Among benefits taking effect this week:
-Young adults can remain on their family's health plan until they turn 26.
-Free immunizations for children.
-Free preventive care, like mammograms and cholesterol screenings.
-No more lifetime coverage limits, and annual limits start to phase out.
-Plans can't cancel coverage for people who get sick.
-No denial of coverage to children with pre-existing health conditions.
Most of the big changes, such as the new purchasing pools and requirement for everyone to carry health insurance, do not kick in until 2014, but Democrats hope that the more voters learn of the benefits, the more they'll like the bill.
With every House of Representatives seat and a third of the Senate up for re-election November 2, there are plenty of candidates who are being called to account for their vote in March on the health care legislation. And in almost every case the ones on the defensive are Democrats who supported the bill that the Republicans branded as a budget-busting government takeover, not Republicans who opposed it.
Democrats and the White House play down the significance of the health bill as a campaign issue.
"Health care will play a role in individual campaigns, but this is not an election about health care," Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, said in an interview. "This is an election about jobs and the economy."
Just six weeks before midterm congressional elections expected to punish Democrats, the president surrounded himself in a suburban Washington backyard with people who benefited from the law - a hemophiliac fearful of lifetime coverage limits that will now be eliminated, a senior citizen who got help with her heart medications.
Acknowledging that the US economy is the foremost concern, Obama nonetheless insisted, "Health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore." Presidents had tried to reform health care for nearly a century. Most Americans receive private insurance through their employers.
Obama highlighted some new reforms that take effect at the six-month mark today, including new coverage for preventive care and young adults being able to stay on their parents' health care plans until age 26.
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart," one woman present, Norma Byrne, told the president, explaining she was benefiting from the law's provisions that are closing the prescription drug coverage gap in a health care plan for the elderly.
Such gratitude is not the norm. A new AP poll finds just 30 percent of Americans in favor of and 40 percent opposed to the 10-year, nearly US$1 trillion bill to extend health coverage to 32 million uninsured. Another 30 percent were neither in favor nor opposed. The poll also found a high level of misunderstanding of what's actually in the bill.
Obama acknowledged he himself bears some responsibility for that.
"Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country," the president said.
Among benefits taking effect this week:
-Young adults can remain on their family's health plan until they turn 26.
-Free immunizations for children.
-Free preventive care, like mammograms and cholesterol screenings.
-No more lifetime coverage limits, and annual limits start to phase out.
-Plans can't cancel coverage for people who get sick.
-No denial of coverage to children with pre-existing health conditions.
Most of the big changes, such as the new purchasing pools and requirement for everyone to carry health insurance, do not kick in until 2014, but Democrats hope that the more voters learn of the benefits, the more they'll like the bill.
With every House of Representatives seat and a third of the Senate up for re-election November 2, there are plenty of candidates who are being called to account for their vote in March on the health care legislation. And in almost every case the ones on the defensive are Democrats who supported the bill that the Republicans branded as a budget-busting government takeover, not Republicans who opposed it.
Democrats and the White House play down the significance of the health bill as a campaign issue.
"Health care will play a role in individual campaigns, but this is not an election about health care," Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, said in an interview. "This is an election about jobs and the economy."
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