CNN news 2013-10-25 加文本

cnn news 2013-10-25

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3 years and 7 months since he signed it, the debate hasn't let up about President Obama's health care reform law. What is it? What does it do? What's the controversy? We're starting at the beginning. The official name is the patient protection and affordable care act. But most people including the president call it Obamacare. The goal was to make it easier and more affordable for millions of Americans who didn't have health insurance to get it. Different health insurance plans cover different things but they all fundamentally work the same. If you have health insurance, you pay money into a fund and then the health care company used that fund to help pay for customer's medical services. President Obama started work on his health care reform law right after he took office. Protests against his plans started almost immediately. One point of controversy earlier on was the individual mandate. It's part of the law that requires most Americans to either have health insurance or pay a fine. Critics filed lawsuits arguing that was unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court disagreed and that helped Obamacare. The bill came law in March of 2010. The controversy didn't stop. There are concerns about high cost of Obamacare and its potentially negative effects on the US economy. Republicans and some Democrats in House of Representatives have voted multiple times to repeal the law and polls indicate that more Americans are opposed to the law than support it. Different parts of the law going to effect at different times. This month, Americans are able to start signing up for health insurance under Obamacare. White House official said nearly 500,000 people have filled out applications. 7 millions are expected to enroll by Apr. But so far, the process hasn't gone smoothly.     

"More eyes on the debt ceiling debate and government shutdown, another Washington blunder occurred. It's safe to say the roll out of Obamacare and health care.gov was less than perfect."

"And I'll be the first to tell you that the website launch was rockier than what we have liked."

"That's Health Human Service secretary, Katheline Sebilius. She's become the target for Republicans after the site was and still is plagued by technical problems Some people have been unable to sing up. Others have had their passports disappear."

"Secretary Sebilius has 3 and a half years to launch Obama-care and she has failed."    

"The Republican National Committee has even launched a petition and Twitter campaign to fire Sebilius."

"That really caused question the accountability of the leadership. That's going on over at HHS in terms of not our taxpayers dollars but the delivery of key services."

"As 2 House Committees begin investigating the website launch, the administration backs embattled Sebilius."

"The secretary does have a full confidence of the president."

"But even some Democrats are critical of the roll out."

"Enormously frustrated."

"Meanwhile, efforts are under way to fix the problem."

"There are constant improvements under way so that we are getting people in much more quickly. We have a plan to go back and revisit people who may have had an unsatisfactory experience."