Associated Press
6/8/2010
WHEATON, MD–Barack Obama on Tuesday sought acceptance of the new health care overhaul law from skeptical seniors, a crucial constituency the White House wants to win over, even as the Gulf oil spill dominates public debate and the president’s time.
The questions Obama got from a large crowd at the Holiday Park Multipurpose Senior Center in suburban Maryland, and from others listening on the phone, suggested that even if rancorous debate has faded, plenty of doubts remain. And there’s only so much Obama can do to ease them. That may be a sobering prospect for the White House with crucial midterm elections looming.
Tuesday’s event was timed to coincide with the release later this week of the first batch of $250 checks to seniors who fall into Medicare’s prescription drug coverage gap, known as the “doughnut hole.” Some 4 million elderly and disabled people will get checks this year, a down payment on the law’s approach of closing the doughnut hole entirely over the next decade.
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