MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: ACA

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Terri Sewell, how invested are your colleagues in this to go home and make sure that the information is correct? How far or deep does this really run where it would have an impact of negativity on Democrats if there is any?

REP. TERRI SEWELL (D), ALABAMA: I think that it`s really important that all of us who are supportive of the Affordable Care Act get out there and make sure that our constituents get the right information. So I was very happy that the President was on the stamp (ph) today. You know, they spent over $40 million in negative campaigning on this. If we had a fraction of that money explaining to people how they can enroll and the benefits of ACA, we would be doing well. So I just think it`s really imperative that all of us are vested in making sure that the ACA .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SEWELL: . rolls out well.

SCHULTZ: Well Congresswoman if I look at the income levels and the socioeconomic makeup of Alabama, Alabama is a big state in this, there`s a lot of people that are going to benefit from ObamaCare and this health care law. Where does that take you?

SEWELL: Absolutely. You know, 600 -- over 600,000 Alabamians are uninsured and so -- and a disproportionate number of that is in my district. So I think that we as Alabamians should not be on the forefront trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We need to be trying to enroll our constituents in making sure that this works. We also have lots and lots of folks who have preexisting conditions in my district and I know that they would benefit immediately from the ACA.

SCHULTZ: All right. The President made it personal today. Take a listen to this.

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OBAMA: I remember the fear of Michelle and I felt when Sasha was a few months old and she got meningitis and we raced to the hospital. And they had to give her a spinal tap and we didn`t know that was wrong and we were terrified, never felt so scared or helpless in all of my life, but we were fortunate enough to have good health insurance.

And I remember looking around that emergency room and thinking, "What about the parents who aren`t that lucky? What about the parents who get hit with a bill of $20,000 or $30,000? And they`ve got no idea how to pay for it. What about those parents whose kids have a chronic illness like asthma and have to keep on going back to the emergency room because they don`t have a regular doctor and the bills never stopped coming." Who is going to stand up for them?

In the wealthiest nation on earth, no one should go broke just because they get sick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Bob Shrum, how do the Republicans compete with that?

SHRUM: Well, they don`t really that`s why they`re telling all of these horror stories that started with death panels a few years ago. This is the fundamental dividing line on this issue. Whether you believe health care is a right and not a privilege and whether it should be a right in this country. That`s what ObamaCare takes us a long way toward and you`re going to say -- and by the way Ted Cruz in that endless filibuster where he said or bloviation where he said not much that made sense, said one thing that was exactly right. That once this thing takes effect, it`s going to
be impossible to repeal it.

It`s going to be impossible to repeal it because the lies the Congresswoman is talking about can`t stand when people are experiencing it in real time. When they experience it .

SEWELL: Exactly.

SHRUM: . when they live with it, when they are covered despite preexisting conditions, when they can buy insurance at an affordable cost all the rest of this is going to go away. And you`re going to have Republican candidates as I`ve said to you Ed a few -- a couple of weeks ago, you`re going to have Republican candidates a few weeks -- a few years from now and saying, "Oh I wouldn`t touch ObamaCare, I just want to strengthen it except they won`t call it ObamaCare."

SEWELL: Exactly, you know, I think it`s really .

SCHULTZ: Terri Sewell .

SEWELL: Yes.

SCHULTZ: Go ahead.

SEWELL: Now what I was going to say is I think that what the biggest fear Republican colleagues -- my Republican colleagues had is that if Affordable Care Act will succeed, not that it will fail .

SCHULTZ: Yes.

SEWELL: . and from a personal note, you know, my dad struggled with stroke after stroke after stroke, he`s currently wheelchair-bound. And I know that when I campaigned three years ago, I campaigned on the slogan that the Affordable Care Act and health care should be a right not a fight.

We shouldn`t be fighting over this. We should be providing health care for all Americans. I think it`s a no-win situation for the Republicans to really be advocating to 30 million Americans should be uninsured, it`s really .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SEWELL: . how could you stand by something like that?

SCHULTZ: It`s just a matter of time before the worm turns in a big, big way. I just don`t think you two can trump any of those personal stories and the President`s done a great job of putting a human element on it not only with the faith that his mother suffered but also the experience of his family and his young daughter at the time. I think the President, Congresswoman, needs to do more of this. Do you think that there are Congressional members that want to see him do more of this?

SEWELL: Absolutely. You know, the biggest and most powerful advocate we have is the President .

SCHULTZ: Yes.

SEWELL: . so I think .

SCHULTZ: Yes, OK.

SEWELL: . that we have to -- he has to continuously be on the stamp (ph) talking about the good values and the good benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

SCHULTZ: All right. All right. Congresswoman Terri Sewell, Bob Shrum Daily Beast, great to have you with us tonight.

SHRUM: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Thanks so much.

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