Obama trumpets benefits of healthcare

President Barack Obama on Tuesday sought to shift the nation's attention to a sunnier topic: the coming benefits from the Democrats’ recently-passed healthcare reforms.

Surrounded by a sea of seniors in Wheaton, Md., Obama defended the legislation from GOP attacks and trumpeted the arrival of one of earliest benefits of the new law: a $250 rebate to tens of thousands of seniors caught in the coverage gap of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit — a gap known unendearingly as the “doughnut hole.” The government will begin mailing out those checks on Thursday.

“Frankly, we shouldn’t have had a doughnut hole to begin with,” Obama said in a thinly veiled shot at the Republicans who created the coverage gap.

Tuesday’s televised town hall is an early sign that Democrats continue to see their health reform law as a political winner in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections. It’s also an indication that, as each new benefit in the law arrives, Democrats don’t intend to let it go unnoticed among a public that remains skeptical of the sweeping reforms.

The town hall came just a day after the administration launched the first phase of a five-year, $250 million program designed to bolster insurance rate review procedures. The voluntary initiative — also a provision of the new health reform law — will provide $1 million grants in 2010 for states to improve their oversight of insurance rate hikes.

Still, Republican leaders, who were unanimous in their opposition to the health reforms earlier in the year, remain unconvinced of the law’s merits. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that other provisions of the bill will hike drug costs for a majority of the nation’s seniors.

“Behind every $250 check are more than three seniors who will be paying more as a result of this bill,” McConnell said on the Senate floor prior to Obama’s remarks.

“Americans never wanted this bill,” he added, “and they’re reminded everyday why they opposed it.”

Obama also announced the launch of a new initiative designed to eliminate fraud in the healthcare system. The program — a partnership between the Health and Human Services and Justice departments — aims to establish better cooperation between state and federal regulators, while installing stiffer penalties for criminal offenders. The White House says it will cut Medicare fraud in half by 2012.

“It’s appalling,” Obama said of the fraud, “and we’re going to put a stop to it.”

---