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Tag: Kathleen Sebelius

  • Kathleen Sebelius Says She Told Obama Staying “Wasn’t an Option”

    Kathleen Sebelius, who resigned last week as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that she made the decision to leave and told President Barack Obama last month that staying “wasn’t an option.”

    Sebelius’ appearance on Meet the Press was her first interview since the White House announced her resignation Friday. She said that she and the president first spoke about her future after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – started to show it was recovering from a problematic launch on October 1.

    “The president and I began to talk after the first of the year, and I went back to him in early March,” Sebelius said.

    “I made it pretty clear that it really wasn’t an option to stay on, Sebelius said.

    “I thought it was fair to either commit to January 2017 or leave with enough time that he would get a strong, competent leader,” Sebelius said.

    “That really wasn’t a commitment I was willing to make and he knew that,” Sebelius continued.

    Sebelius was responding to speculation that she was asked to resign after the failed Obamacare rollout last fall.

    President Obama announced her resignation on Friday, as well as his nomination of budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to take over as health secretary.

    Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had a rocky start because of technical glitches with the program’s website, enrollment totals after the March 31 deadline exceeded projections. Sebelius’ resignation comes at a high note for the program. She announced last week that 7.5 million people signed up for private health coverage under the law. 

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kathleen Sebelius Resigns As HHS Secretary; Budget Secretary To Take Her Place

    White house officials announced the resignation of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who stepped down following the six-month open enrollment period of Obamacare.

    Last Sunday, Sebelius denied rumors that she was pressured to leave her post because of issues with the Affordable Care Act’s implementation. In a ceremony held at the White House Rose Garden on Friday, President Barack Obama nominated Office of Management and Budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell as Sebelius’ successor.

    In an interview on NBC’s TV news program Meet the Press, Sebelius said that she and President Obama started discussing the health care law after the first year, suggesting that he should begin looking for her replacement once the first chapter of the implementation was finished.

    Sebelius also said she offered her resignation to President Obama in March, although he did not accept it until after the enrollment deadline passed this past week. Calling it a “logical time to leave”, Sebelius said that she made it clear to the President that staying on was not an option.

    The 65-year-old former Governor of Kansas was widely criticized for the Obamacare website’s many glitches and flaws. However, the total number of Obamacare enrollees went over 7 million despite the rollout’s challenges – an achievement that earned the praise of Democrats. On the other hand, Republicans have not been as forgiving to Sebelius and the health care law.

    On Sunday, they vowed to continue fighting Obamacare even as it shifts under Burwell’s leadership. Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee’s 7th district appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation in which she stated that the government can expect a continued effort to “repeal and replace” Obamacare.

    Sebelius successor, Burwell, is not a newbie to the White House – she served under former President Bill Clinton as his deputy chief of staff, as well as the staff director of the National Economic Council.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kathleen Sebelius Talks Failed Obamacare Rollout

    For Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary who just resigned, the date of Dec.1 was a scary one.

    Why? Because that was the relaunch date for HealthCare.gov, since the initial launch of Oct.1 failed so miserably.

    As most have heard by now, Sebelius was replaced by Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the Director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and since leaving, she’s given her first interview on the failed Affordable Care Act roll out.

    Sebelius said Oct. 1 was the wrong date for the launch, but she also said she’s glad everything worked out in the end, since over 7 million signed up for Obamacare, which is higher than the President anticipated.

    “Well, I think there’s no question, and I’ve said this many times, that the launch of the website was terribly flawed and terribly difficult,” she said. “Clearly, the estimate that it was ready to go Oct. 1 was just flat out wrong.”

    But since all of that is behind her, Sebelius feels it was all worth it for the sake of the country, since people now have access to proper medical coverage, and she’s thrilled that for the very first time folks can easily get all kinds of useful healthcare information.

    “People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market,” Sebelius stated.

    According to an inside source for Reuters, the former Governor of Kansas planned to resign after the open enrollment period ended, which probably means President Obama knew he would go with Burwell for quite some time. Plus, the President has the utmost confidence in Burwell, said Sebelius, as she’s done a great job of managing budgets for the White House.

    “She believed that once open enrollment ended it would be the right time to transition the department to new leadership,” said the insider referring to Sebelius. “The president sought a nominee with strong credential in management, implementation, and performance for this important role.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Kathleen Sebelius Resigns as Secretary of Health

    Kathleen Sebelius will resign from her post as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, President Obama will announce today, the White House said.

    Sebelius, 65, will step down just after enrollment in President’s Obama healthcare program topped first-year goals.  A former Democratic governor of Kansas, Sebelius spent five years as secretary, and presided over one of the biggest changes in healthcare in the U.S. since Medicare and Medicaid started nearly 50 years ago.

    President Obama is expected to name Sylvia Mathews Burwell, 48, director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the next health department secretary, the White House said.

    “From her work on Head Start, to expanding mental health coverage, to advancing cutting-edge health care research and, of course, her unwavering leadership in implementing the Affordable Care Act, Secretary Sebelius often calls her work here the most meaningful of her life,” Dori Salcido, a department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail confirming Sebelius’s resignation.

    Sebelius helped implement 2010 healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. It is expected that under the new law, health insurance will eventually be offered to 25 million more people in the U.S., paid for with changes to Medicare, taxes on health-care providers, a requirement that all Americans have insurance, and a provision that allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26.

    The deadline for first-year enrollment in the program was March 31, and after a troubled start, total enrollment reached 7.1 million people, and exceeded initial projections. Enrollment has since risen to 7.5 million, as individuals were given an extended deadline to complete applications.

    Sebelius told Obama in early March that she would resign, according to an e-mail from the White House. She said the end of the health law’s first enrollment period on March 31 would be “the right time to transition the department to new leadership,” the e-mail said.

    Sebelius and Burwell are expected to join Obama for the public announcement today at the White House.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Health Insurance: Obama to Enforce Mental Health Rules

    Just after President Barack Obama issued an apology to the people who have lost their healthcare coverage thanks to Obamacare, the Obama Administration has announced plans to implement new rules regarding mental health coverage. Five years ago, former president George W. Bush signed a law that guaranteed mental health parity, but it has taken half a decade for Obama to fully implement the law.

    In what may be considered a win for Obama by some, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the announcement of plans to fully implement the mental health law starting Friday. “For way too long, the health care system has openly discriminated against people with behavioral health problems,” Sebelius said. “This is the largest expansion of mental health coverage in more than a generation.”

    The law will guarantee that most insurance providers treat mental health issues and addiction problems with the same regard as physical conditions. For example, people who need to meet with a mental health provider will pay co-pays and deductibles that are comparable to those paid to doctors and surgeons.

    Similar visit limits will also be in place. With some insurance companies, people are only covered for a certain number of visits with a mental healthcare provider per year. Under the new law, should insurance companies choose to enforce limits on such visits, they will have to be comparable to limits in place for medical and surgical benefits.

    Many people believe that the implementation of this law could potentially decrease the occurrences of mass killings and other violent acts committed by people with mental issues, such as the Newtown, Connecticut massacre. Since most people with coverage will have equal access to mental healthcare, they should be able to get the help they need or could at least have the opportunity to throw up red flags for providers.

    Former Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, a co-sponsor of the 2008 law, said the rules should help veterans. “No one stands to gain more from true parity than the men and women who have served our country and now need treatment for the invisible wounds they have brought home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. Considering that more soldiers committed suicide than died in battle last year, the new rules should go a long way towards helping veterans.

    “We feel actually like we’ve made a lot of progress on mental health as a result in this year, and this is kind of the big one,” said a senior official with the Obama Administration.

    What do you think of the new rules regarding mental health coverage? Respond below.

    [Image via YouTube]

  • Kathleen Sebelius Gets Roasted By Jon Stewart

    Kathleen Sebelius is the Health and Human Services Secretary, and as a result of Obamacare recently going into effect, she has been put on the hot seat with Jon Stewart. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart certainly has a reputation of teasing and poking fun at celebrities, politicians, and all sorts of other issues in our culture, and this episode was no different. He pressures her on the difficult questions of the program throughout the show, and made it very difficult for her to respond.

    Stewart opened the show with a very funny challenge that he offered to Sebelius, saying “I’m gonna try to download every movie ever made, and you’re going to try to sign up for Obamacare and we’ll see what happens first.” This line, of course, was received with great laughs from the audience. Stewart is a liberal and as he appeals to a liberal audience, he also brought up the fact that the Affordable Care Act is not aggressive enough, and in fact the single-payer option would be the way to go, in his opinion.

    He began by teasing her about how incredibly slow the federal online health insurance marketplace has been, since its release last week. Obamacare launched last week on October 1st on the same day that the government shut down. She appeared on The Daily Show in order to talk about the program and promote healthcare.gov, which is the the website and health insurance marketplace established as part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

    Stewart continued to challenge her and the glitches of the presentation of the new website. Sebelius was continually forced to backfire at Stewart’s vicious questions and noted that a large majority of employers already provide insurance, and that government subsidies are going to be available for many individuals to help buy insurance. He questioned her and pointed out the numerous technical glitches that exist within the site, citing the issue that existed when the site crashed because of the large amount of people that were trying to log on to the site. This is also a testament to the interest that people have in the program, which is a contrast to the many people who claim that Obamacare will be such a harmful program to Americans.

    Sebelius went through the general talking points of the Affordable Care Act throughout the interview, and was stopped at one point when Stewart asked her if she knew how many people had signed up. She explained to Jon Stewart and his audience that she is not able to give a clear example of how many people are fully enrolled. Regarding his aggressive line of questioning, Stewart said “It feels like it’s frustrating to have to defend something that’s less than ideal or is functioning at a level of incompetence that is larger than it should be.” He also criticized the fact that businesses were granted exemptions for one year from the program, but those same delays were not provided to individuals.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQVlVJzWFw

    Image via Youtube

  • Obamacare Fines: Not Prohibitive for Some

    WIth less than a week to go before Americans can start signing up for and buying health insurance through exchanges provided by the controversial Affordable Care Act (ACA), many are seeking to understand the penalties that will be levied on those who opt to go without insurance.

    The enrollment period opens up October 1 and continues through the end of March for 2014 coverage. Despite the fact that open enrollment continues through March, however, people who haven’t signed up by December 15 risk incurring a penalty.

    US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said that ” … these new options will finally make health insurance work” with the budgets of millions of Americans who have previously been unable to afford health insurance premiums.

    But what about those who decide that even with the income-based subsidies provided by the ACA, they just can’t spare the extra money for premiums?

    The ACA requires nearly everyone to either buy health insurance or pay a penalty. This provision has came to be known as the “individual mandate.”

    It’s one of the more controversial aspects of the ACA. It was challenged in the Supreme Court last year as unconstitutional, but the court upheld it on the basis that the individual mandate is essentially a tax, which as we all know is a right afforded our government under the Constitution.

    So, if you opt to incur the penalty instead of buying insurance, how much will you pay?

    You’ll get a bit of a break the first year. For 2014, you’ll pay $95 per uninsured adult* in the household (capped at $285 per household) or 1% of the household income over the filing threshold, whichever results in a larger fee. For now, the filing threshold is $10,000 for an individual and $20,000 for a family.

    In 2015, that changes to $325 per uninsured adult* (capped at $975) or 2% of the household income over the filing threshold.

    By 2016, the amounts will be upped to $695 per uninsured adult* (capped at $2,085 per household) or 2.5% of household income over the filing threshold.

    *The penalty is half the amount for those under age 18.

    Taking the penalty will be the less expensive option for many such as these CNNMoney readers.

    But some worry that the ACA has set the fine too low, making it too attractive an option for the young and healthy, who don’t necessarily need insurance to the extent that the elderly and infirm do. They speculate that this lack of healthy participants in the healthcare exchanges will throw the entire system off balance.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.