home health care jobs

ORLANDO, Fla.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to shore up the support of older midterm voters Friday by fighting back attacks on the health overhaul law, which many seniors have been hesitant to accept.

Speaking to a gathering of AARP members, Sebelius acknowledged confusion remained over the law, in part motivated by Republican claims that it would usher in socialism, ration care and forbid patients from continuing to see their own doctors. She emphasized improvements brought by the law, including the gradual closure of the Medicare prescription drug "doughnut hole," a change widely heralded by seniors.

"With so much else on Americans' minds and a 24-hour news cycle that gets louder every day," Sebelius said, "it's been hard for those very facts to break through."

In a tough election year for Democrats, seniors' support is crucial.

Seniors generally are the most loyal voters, but their support is particularly important in midterm elections, when other age groups are less likely to vote. In 2006, 64.3 percent of people aged 65 to 74 voted, and 60.6 percent of people 75 and older. Only 22.1 percent of those aged 18 to 24 turned out in the last mid-terms.

Support for the health law has been less solid among seniors than other age segments. A June poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found among seniors who said they were most likely to vote in the midterm elections, 45 percent said they were either much more likely or somewhat more likely to vote against a candidate who supported the law.

A July poll by Kaiser found more than one in three seniors believed, incorrectly, that death panels were part of the law.

Sebelius railed against misinformation spread about the law, but said concerns would ease as its measures came into effect.

"The reality of what's in the law begins to collide with some of the outrageous claims that people have been making," she said.

Sebelius didn't take questions from reporters in her Orlando visit, which came as she issued a joint apology with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for what they called an "unethical" study involving Guatemalans in the 1940s. In that study, U.S. government researchers intentionally infected people with sexually transmitted diseases.

As for the health bill, though, it remained to be seen whether the Obama administration could sufficiently ease seniors concerns and translate that to support of Democrats on Election Day.

After Sebelius left the stage, audience members were invited to ask AARP experts questions about the law, which the 40-million-member group endorsed. The first man to approach the microphone asked about death panels.

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