President Obama: What Martin Luther King Would Think Of Our Progress

Originally published on August 29th, 2013

President Barack Obama had a powerful conversation with Yolanda Adams at the White House, and explained what single women need to know about health care. Because of the role women play in the family, President Obama underscored how necessary affordable health care is for females, and spoke on ”The Yolanda Adams Morning Show” about how insurance through Obamacare will be cheaper than a cell phone bill in many states.

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President Obama also talks about jobs and justice, bridging the economic gap in the United States, and what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would think of the civil rights progress that has been made in our country 50 years after the March on Washington.

Listen to this compelling interview in the audio player, and hear more important conversations on “The Yolanda Adams Morning Show” weekdays from 6-10 am EST/5-9 am CST. Catch past interviews from the show right here.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE

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Q: Welcome back to the Yolanda Adams Morning Show, I have the pleasure of being up close and personal with our President. Hello, sir.

A: It’s wonderful to see you, Yolanda.

Q: Good to see you too.

A: Thanks for having me on the show again.

Q: Oh, no problem. I am so excited about this 50th anniversary. You spoke yesterday, and it was heart wrenching, heartfelt. How does it make you feel to know that 50 years ago this probably was not a possibility in the eyes of our elders?

A: Well, obviously it’s extremely humbling. First of all, yeah, I went into the speech knowing that nothing can match Dr. King’s words, but also the moment. With all the stakes that were so high at the time, you know, the incredible outpouring of support that the civil rights movement received from all across the country from just ordinary folks who, you know, were just sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Q: Right.

A: And were willing to put themselves on the line like that and make enormous sacrifices. And for us, 50 years later, to be able to recognize those accomplishments and take great pride in what our parents and grandparents did, but also understanding we’ve still got work to do ourselves. It was a wonderful moment and hopefully we’ll inspire this generation of young people to get back out there and make sure that they’re doing what they can to create a more just America.

Q: And you always make the connection of jobs and justice.

A: Mm-hmm.

Q: Of course that was the thing back then. How do we do that now?

A: Well, this is the biggest challenge. I think if Dr. King came back today and saw the progress that we made he would say that we’ve made incredible progress in civil rights, in how people are treated, the mere fact that an African-American could be elected President would be mindboggling to him. On the other hand if you looked at the economic situation he would say that, you know, the inequality that still exists, the welfare act that still exists, the inner city poverty that’s still out there. We haven’t made as big a stride on that front as we should have. And I think for us to make real progress on that there’s some things that we’re going to have to do at the federal government level. We’ve made some progress; the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. That will give healthcare security to people who didn’t have it before. The work that we did to make sure that we provided more Pell grants means more students can access college than ever before. But we’ve also got to do things, for example, setting up early childhood education programs targeting neighborhoods that are having trouble, and helping to rebuild housing, and improve transportation so that businesses want to locate there. Those are all areas where we could be making a difference right now raising the minimum wage which would life people out of poverty. Those are things that require legislative effort. Right now, obviously, there’s a lot of gridlock in Washington, but we just got to keep on pressing, remembering that, you know, it took decades between the time of the Emancipation Proclamation being signed, and the Civil Rights Act being passed, and then it took another couple of decades before the enforcement was real. And, you know, these things take time, but we got to stay persistent and not lose hope.

Q: If you’re just tuning in we are talking face-to-face with our President in the Oval Office. Thank you so much. I love your space. (Chuckle)

A: It’s not bad.

Q: No, really it’s not.

A: It’s a rental, though. You know, I rent.

Q: It is a rental, but it’s okay.

A: Yeah. It’s only a short term lease.

Q: But it’s okay.

A: (Chuckle)

Q: You’re here. (Chuckle)

A: There you go.

Q: Let’s hone in on the Affordable Care Act. A lot of people are; hey, I don’t know what’s going on. There’s this confusion. I hear one thing, I see another thing. There are ads saying that my insurance will go somewhere, you know, in the deep blue yonder. How do we, and I guess passionately, tell them; hey, if you have insurance, you’re cool. If you don’t have insurance we have a better way for you.

A: Well, you did just describe it, but there’s been a lot of misinformation, most of its political, paid for by either the Republican Party, or various conservative groups. But the truth is the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, is real straight forward. If you’re already on Medicare, if you’re on Medicaid, if your employer provides you with health insurance, you don’t have to do anything. All it does is it provides you more protection and more benefits. For example, insurance companies can’t impose lifetime limits on you, so if you got really sick, or a member got really sick, they couldn’t just cut you off at a certain point. It allows young people, for example, to stay on their parents’ healthcare plan up to the age of 26. So, you know, for a lot of young people, when they first get out of school, they may get a job that doesn’t provide health insurance. Well, now they’re going to be protected. But if you don’t have health insurance right now, or if you’re buying it on the individual market, meaning you just got to go out there and kind of shop, this is going to give you a better deal. Basically you’re going to be able to go to a website, healthcare.gov, or the states are setting up a whole bunch of websites. And you are going to be able to compare the prices that you can get through these plans, and in addition it will tell you the kinds of help you will get from the government to pay for it. And it turns out that in a whole bunch of states people may be able to get health insurance for less than their monthly cellphone bill, which means not only do you get regular checkups, if you’re a woman, you know, that’s particularly important given the need for ongoing checkups. You also have the confidence and the insurance that if you get in a car accident, heaven forbid something happens, you’re not going to lose your house, you’re not going to have to empty out your back account, you don’t have to go to the emergency room. You go to the doctor. You got health services that are high quality. And, you know, I think that a lot of people don’t have to take my word for it. All they need to do is just go and see what this thing offers, the same way that if they’re buying a plane ticket they just go on the Internet and check it out.

Q: Yeah. Last question; my audience is mainly female, single mothers. What can we say to them that would encourage them to go to healthcare.gov, check it all out, and make sure that it works for their family?

A: Well, look. As I said, women need healthcare more than anybody. And, you know, I’ve mentioned a number of the things that have an impact on women. I’ll give you one other example, and that’s contraception.

Q: Yeah.

A: You know. Under all the plans that are provided contraception is free. Well, that can almost pay for itself for a lot of folks. And, you know, when it comes to women’s health, one of the things that I very much believe is that, you know, sometimes moms, they’re so worried about their kids that they don’t take care of themselves.

Q: That’s right.

A: But, you know, obviously it doesn’t do the family any good if mom gets sick. You know, that’s the anchor that holds the whole family together. So what is also true is women are more likely to be in jobs that may not offer good benefits. And this is a way for women to be able to say, you know what, I will always have that security, I’ll always have that protection. I’m not going to lose everything I have if heaven forbid something happens to me. And people are going to be able to choose a price that’s right for them, and will also be able to get, you know, tax credits, help from the government to pay for it. So I hope everybody takes a look at it. They will not officially be able to buy it until October 1st, but they will be able to go ahead of time to these websites, check it out, find out what’s right, sign up preliminary and then actually go ahead and get that insurance started on October first. And so we’re just going to keep on providing information with information, pumping this up, and so far at least, in states like New York, for example. It turns out that the costs, the premiums are going to be 50% lower.

Q: Wow.

A: Half of what they are right now for the average person who is trying to buy health insurance in New York City on their own. In California it’s 33% lower. So we know this is going to be a good deal, we just got to make sure people know about it.

Q: Well, we’re going to make sure that everyone knows about it from now until next year. (Laugh)

A: Thank you so much.

Q: Thank you so much, Mr. President, for being on the Yolanda Adams Morning Show.

A: Always a pleasure.

Q: Thank you.

A: Thank you very much. God bless.

Q: God bless you too.

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