"The Affordable Care Act is the most powerful law for reducing health disparities since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965, the same year the Voting Rights Act was also enacted," Sebelius said. "That significance hits especially close to home. My father was a congressman from Cincinnati who voted for each of those critical civil rights laws, and who represented a district near where the late Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth lived and preached.
"The same arguments against change, the same fear and misinformation that opponents used then are the same ones opponents are spreading now. 'This won't work,' 'Slow down,' 'Let's wait,' they say.
"But history shows that upholding our founding principles demands continuous work toward a more perfect union...And it requires the kind of work that the NAACP has done for more than a century to move us forward.
"You showed it in the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation. You showed it by ensuring inalienable rights are secured in the courtroom and at the ballot box. And you showed it by supporting a health law 100 years in the making.
"With each step forward, you said to forces of the status quo, 'This will work,' 'We can't slow down' 'We can't wait,' 'We won't turn back.'