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Reuters General/ ­- Article, Qui, 12 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
Sebelius seeks civil rights support for
healthcare law
By David Morgan WASHINGTON | Thu Apr 12, 2012
6:50pm EDT (Reuters) ­- A top U.S. administration
official asked civil rights activists on Thursday to help
defend President Barack Obama's embattled
healthcare law, saying the reform package faces an
"enemy" determined to set American health policy
back half a century. The remarks in a charged election
year come two months before the Supreme Court is
expected to issue a ruling that could make or break the
law. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius sought to cast the two­-year­-old reform law as
a vital weapon against racial disparities that have long
condemned U.S. minorities to higher infant mortality
rates, shorter lifespans and limited access to medical
services. "The enemy is at the door and we know that
they would like to dismantle these initiatives," Sebelius
told the annual convention of the National Action
Network, a civil rights group led by the Rev. Al
Sharpton. "Healthcare inequalities have been one of
the most persistent forms of injustice," she said. "Now
is not the time to turn back." Sebelius' remarks were
part of an administration campaign to promote the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act during a
turbulent election year marked by repeated calls for its
repeal and a Supreme Court ruling expected in June
that could declare all or part of the law
unconstitutional. Civil rights activists and the minority
communities they represent are a key segment of
Obama's Democratic base, whose support he could
need in great numbers to stave off a Republican
challenge in November, especially if the high court
strikes down his signature domestic policy
achievement. Research has long shown low­-income
Americans, including many minorities, have
significantly less access to medical care and suffer
disproportionate rates of childhood illnesses,
hypertension, heart disease, AIDS and other diseases.
HEALTHCARE FOR 30 MILLION UNINSURED
Designed to extend health coverage to more than 30
million uninsured Americans, Obama's healthcare
reform law has become a favorite target for
Republicans mainly because of an unpopular provision
that requires most Americans to have private health
insurance by 2014. "We've got folks who are
committed to undoing ... the important initiatives that
we've made in the last few years," Sebelius told her
predominantly black audience without making a direct
reference to Republicans or other opponents of reform.
"Frankly, they want to go back and undo Medicare and
Medicaid from the mid­-1960s. They want to roll us
back years and years," she added. Medicare and
Medicaid, the national healthcare programs for the
elderly and poor, respectively, were created in 1965 in
a period of social and civil rights reforms aimed at
ending racial segregation and protecting the voting
rights of minorities. The civil rights movement of the
1960s led to monumental changes in American race
relations that allowed Obama to be elected as the first
black U.S. president in 2008. The
Republican­-controlled U.S. House of Representatives
voted last month to partially privatize Medicare and
convert Medicaid to a block­-grant program for states.
Sebelius called on religious leaders, health advocates
and other minority leaders to help the administration
educate the public about the healthcare law's benefits.
The law, which does not come into full force until
January 1, 2014, has already benefited minorities by
extending private insurance coverage to young adults,
providing free preventive services for those with
insurance and banning coverage denials for children
with pre­-existing conditions. "I'm here to ask you to
help," Sebelius said. "If we can begin to close the
disparities in health, we begin to close disparities in
other areas, too." (Editing by Todd Eastham)
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