Reform positions play into campaign rhetoric

The (Orange, Va.) Daily Progress: Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., spent Wednesday touting the new health reform law as he campaigns to win re-election, unlike other Democrats. "Perriello's visit occurred the same day that President Barack Obama appeared in Northern Virginia in an attempt to regain some momentum for the health reforms, which have been a top issue in mid-term congressional races across the country. Perriello, who is facing a tough re-election fight from GOP nominee Robert Hurt of Chatham, voted in favor of the federal health care reform legislation, saying it will ultimately rein in ballooning health care costs and tame the federal deficit" (McNeill, 9/22).

Philadelphia Daily News: In Pennsylvania, the candidates for governor are sparring over the law. "Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, the Democratic nominee, accused [Republican candidate and Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom] Corbett yesterday of trying to have it both ways on the controversial issue. Corbett, in a campaign policy paper released this week, said the legislation could be a great opportunity to help people get health-care coverage if it is executed correctly and survives a legal challenge filed by several state attorneys general. Corbett's policy paper does not mention that he helped file the challenge. Corbett was not so shy in a March fundraising letter mailed to supporters in which he bragged that he was 'leading the fight against Obamacare'" (Brennan, 9/23).

The (Bergen County, N.J.) Record/NorthJersey.com has a Q&A with North New Jersey's congressional candidates — in three races — on the health overhaul and highlights their differences of opinion (Jackson, 9/23).

Politico: House Republicans also are slamming Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "for 'threatening' health care insurance companies who say they have to raise premiums because of the new health care law."

"Republicans have made a regular punching bag out of Sebelius, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich saying last weekend that she is 'behaving exactly in the spirit of the Soviet tyranny.' She told Politico in an interview this week that the hardest part of her job is combating negative information about the law" (Aujla, 9/22).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.