Sebelius: U.S. Will Be A "Second-Rate Nation" Without Health Care Reform

HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius told those gathered for a meeting of the centrist DLC earlier today that a health care reform package will be paid for via $900B of "revenue raisers" and savings garnered within the current system.

Pres. Obama, she said, "is very serious" about the notion that the proposal will not add to the national deficit, "which is currently alarmingly large and continues to grow."

"He feels that health reform should be paid for," she said during an event at the National Press Club.

Sebelius, greeted with a standing ovation, also said that some have suggested the public option advocated by the WH is simply a "stalking horse" for a single-payer plan. "I have to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth," she said. She said that 30 states already have public options that "stand side-by-side with the private option" plans.

She reminded attendees that the nation's health care costs clock in at 18 percent of GDP, higher than any other nation on Earth. Though reform has been attempted by Democratic presidents over the last half century, Sebelius suggested that climate is right to get a bill through Congress.

"I would tell you that I am very optimistic that the momentum is on the side of change, not on the side of the status quo, that doing nothing has a huge cost," she said. " ... The cost of doing nothing will render us a second rate nation on into the future. Our businesses can't afford it. Our families can't afford it, and frankly we can't sustain it."

Sebelius added: "This is a conversation that has been going on for generations, but I think that there is no question that it is not only the president's number one priority, but a priority that I think is one of our economic imperatives in this country."

She said she doesn't know anyone who "argues compelling for doing nothing right now" and she noted the "remarkable" assembly of stakeholders who are coming together to discuss the shape of a plan.

Sebelius said the U.S. is "spending more and getting poorer results for the dollars spent." the administration is attempting "to not only drive a new payment system but a new delivery system and a new value system."

"That's a pretty big lift," she said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)