Meanwhile, she is working to inform people about its ele- ments. Many of them are laid out in a recently launched website,
www.HealthCare.gov.
Beyond implementing the healthcare law, she is the top administrator of a sprawling department of 65,000 em- ployees responsible for public health, food safety, scien- tific research, and the administration of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which serve 90 million Americans.
Before coming to Washington, Sebelius was the gover- nor of Kansas from 2003 until 2009. Prior to that, she served as state insurance commissioner for eight years. The healthcare issue and the controversy it can ignite are hardly new to her: During her years in Kansas, she worked unsuccessfully to expand health coverage in the state through higher cigarette taxes. Still, under her watch, Kansas has added tens of thousands of low-income chil- dren to state health programs.
Prior to her service as insurance commissioner, she was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995. She is a graduate of the University of Kan- sas and Trinity Washington University.
Recently she chatted with Women of Color magazine about the challenges of her job. The discussion follows here:
WOC: Why did you want this job?
Sebelius: Expanding quality, affordable health care to American families and delivering essential human services to our most vulnerable populations has been a passion of mine throughout my career. Serving as the secretary of Health and Human Services was a great opportunity to help make national progress on programs I had worked on at such an exciting and important time.
WOC: Why has passage of healthcare reform proved so controversial, even after the fact? Is the continued opposi- tion surprising?
Sebelius: We are finding that the more people know about the new law, the more they like it. Already, over a million seniors who have fallen into the Medicare Part D cover- age gap have gotten checks to help pay their prescription drug costs. And this is the first step to closing the donut hole. Uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions have a new option for coverage through [the] new Pre- existing Condition Insurance Plan available in all 50 states
www.womenofcolor.net
and D.C.; young adults under age 26 have been able to stay on their parents’ coverage; and new consumer protections, like banning lifetime limits on benefits and prohibiting insurers from denying coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions, start to take effect [on] Septem- ber 23 of this year. So many Americans are already start- ing to benefit from the new law.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of intentional misinforma- tion during the health insurance reform debate. One of our jobs is to make sure [that] Americans have the accu- rate information they need to know how this law will help them and their families, and how they can take advantage of all the important new protections and benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
HealthCare.gov has a great tool where people can answer a few easy questions and find all the healthcare plans available to them.
WOC: Can healthcare reform be implemented if Republi- cans gain control of one or both chambers of Congress? In short, do you think they’ll make good on their threats to block implementation by holding up appropriations? Would they have the power to do it?
Sebelius: I can’t predict elections but Republican leaders have made it clear what they want to do. They are willing to stand in the way of seniors getting help with medica- tions, and take coverage away from kids with pre-existing conditions, and tell small businesses who offer insurance that they would have to continue to pay more for their policies.
WOC: Throughout the economic downturn, one area of continued growth has been healthcare employment. Will that continue under healthcare reform?
Sebelius: The Affordable Care Act is making significant investments in expanding our healthcare workforce – and particularly in making sure we have enough primary care providers. Combined with the earlier investments made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the pro- visions of the Affordable Care Act will support the train- ing, development, and placement of more than 16,000 new primary care providers over the next five years.
WOC: What will be sacrificed economically with the projected costs savings of reform? In other words, are we going to see fewer laboratory technicians, and others involved in medical testing, which presumably will be streamlined under the coming regime?
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