here s my promise by the end of this half-hour, you will understand all of this better than you do now. first, i want to take a moment just to put everything in perspective for a second. whether you support this decision or not, this is a huge deal. this law now means that all americans should have access to health insurance coverage. of course the price tag is high, which is in part why this has been such a controversial idea for more than 60 years. obama tried to do what many others had tried to do and failed. many times since world war ii starting with harry truman. he wanted to increase the availability of doctors, hospitals, and have the government serve as a guarantor of insurance for all americans. in congress, truman s plan never got so much as a vote. the american medical association, very wealthy, powerful lobby group, vehemently campaigned against truman s health care plans. we do not want socialized medicine. in the 1960s, a similar fight. ronald reaga
so it will continue for at least the next couple days. thank you so much. appreciate it. that does it for me here in the cnn newsroom. thanks for spending your day with us. my good friend don lemon continues cnn newsroom at 5:00 eastern. hello. thanks for joining us. a very important week here. i m outside bellevue hospital which is the oldest and one of the largest public hospitals in new york city. you know what i m here today to try and answer your questions about changes that are coming to your medical care and your insurance. this is something that affects all of us. it has been a monumental week. certainly as a journalist but also a doctor and even after all the bitter fighting over the president s health care law we had to see if the supreme court would give its seal of approval. we now know this week it did. the court upheld the law. you ve been sending me questions about what that all means for you. i ll try and answer as many as i possibly can. here is my promis