By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell is urging the National Football League
and other professional sports leagues not to support President
Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, calling Obamacare divisive
and unpopular.
In a June 27 letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell,
McConnell and fellow Republican Senator John Cornyn accused the
Obama administration of drawing the league into “one of the most
divisive and polarizing issues of our day” by trying to enlist
its help in promoting subsidized health coverage for millions of
uninsured Americans.
“Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of the
health care law, it is difficult to understand why an
organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and
apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion,”
McConnell and Cornyn told the NFL.
The two lawmakers also sent similar letters to Major League
Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National
Hockey League, the Professional Golfers’ Association and the
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
told reporters on Monday that the administration was in
discussions with the NFL and other sports groups.
“The NFL, for instance, in the conversations I’ve had, has
been very actively and enthusiastically engaged because they see
health promotion as one of the things that is good for them and
good for the country,” she said.
But the league’s response to McConnell seemed less than
enthusiastic.
“We have responded to the letters we received from members
of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage
in this area and have had no substantive contact with the
administration about (the law’s) implementation,” said NFL
spokesman Greg Aiello.
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to
comment.
The White House and HHS are reaching out to professional
sports leagues, teams and players in hopes of encouraging young
men and women to sign up for health coverage through new online
markets that are slated to begin open enrollment on Oct. 1.
McConnell’s letters represent a new line of Republican
attack on Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
known as Obamacare. Republicans in the House of Representatives
have voted 37 times to repeal or defund the law, which they see
as a costly and unnecessary expansion of government.
The party is now taking aim at administration efforts to
rally private sector support, including fundraising by Sebelius
on behalf of the non-profit group Enroll America, which is
helping to lead a private-sector grassroots campaign aimed at
driving enrollment.
Democrats and other reform advocates say Republicans are
trying to undermine the law’s implementation ahead of the 2014
congressional elections, in which the party hopes to win control
of the Senate.
Analysts say the ability of the online marketplaces, or
exchanges, to attract younger beneficiaries will help determine
whether Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement becomes a
success or a failure.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Eric Beech)
