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President Obama on Health Care Reform; CNN Equals Politics

Aired September 22, 2010 - 11:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Let's take you to president in Falls Church, Virginia.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All right, Paul, it's yours.

PAUL BRAYSHAW, HOST: Welcome. My name is Paul Brayshaw and my wife Francis here, we'd like to welcome you to our backyard. We appreciate y'all being here. We tried to clean up everything so -- but watch your step, you never know, there could be a fresh one out there.

OBAMA: They have dogs.

BRAYSHAW: So welcome.

Thirty-six years ago, I was born with severe factor nine deficiency, hemophilia. I lack a specific clotting factor in my blood to make it clot, and it's been a bit of a challenge over the years.

In 2006, I reached a lifetime cap after three years. I was trying to figure out what to do, whether I should go on a disability policy, change jobs or move states. Fortunately, my employer came through and was able to cover my health care costs, but it was a significant stress for me and my wife. We had an opportunity to have this employer take care of us, which made the world of difference.

The problem with hemophilia, 90 percent of the costs are associated with the clotting factor, the medications I take. So it's been -- that's really where I drive up health care and it's important to have a policy that will cover that. You know, when there's capitation on plans and other things, it doesn't necessarily make my health better, it actually makes me worse and more expensive. So it's been something that I've had to work through.

Fortunately, the Affordable Health Care Act is going to remove some of those burdens and remove the shackles. Really, I won't have to depend on the job for insurance anymore. So the Affordable Health Care Act is welcome, and I expect it'll make a big difference in my life and that of other people that are affected.

So with that, I'd like to thank you again for being here and I'd like to introduce President Barack Obama.

Thank you for being here, sir. OBAMA: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

Well, it is great to see you. Thanks all for taking the time to be here. I know it's a little warm under the sun, so if anybody at some point wants to shift their chairs into the shade, I'm fine with that. I won't be insulted.

I want to just make a couple of acknowledgments of people who are here. First of all, I've got the secretary of Health and Human Services, so she's charged with implementing the Affordable Care Act, Kathleen Sebelius. She's doing a great job, former governor of Kansas, former insurance commissioner, knows all about this stuff. We're very proud to have her on the team.

(APPLAUSE)

Somebody who helped to champion the kinds of reforms and patients' rights that we're going to talk about here today, Congressman Jim Moran is here.

Thank you so much, Jim.

(APPLAUSE)

And Falls Church mayor, Nader Baroukh. I was just mentioning "baroukh" means blessings in Hebrew, one who is blessed, and "barack" means the same thing, so he and I, we're right there. And I know he feels blessed to the mayor of this wonderful town.

You know, when I came into office, obviously we were confronted with an historic crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. We had lost four million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in and we lost almost 800,000 the month I was sworn in. Obviously, the economy has been uppermost on our minds and I had to take a series of steps very quickly to make sure that we prevented the country from growing into a second great depression, that the financial markets were stabilized.

We've succeeded in doing that, and now the economy's growing again, but it's not growing as fast as it needs to. And you still have millions of people who are unemployed out there. You still have hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes. There's a lot of anxiety, and there's a lot of stress out there and so, so much of our focus day-to-day is trying to figure out how do we just make sure that this recovery, that we're slowly on, starts accelerating in a way that helps folks all across the country?

But when I ran for office, I ran not just in anticipation of a crisis, I ran because middle class families all across the country were seeing their security eroded, partly because between the years 2001 and 2009, wages actually went down for the average family by five percent. We had the slowest job growth of any time since World War II. The "Wall Street Journal" called it the "lost decade," and part of the challenge for families was is that even as their wages and incomes were flat lining, their costs from everything from tuition to health care was skyrocketing.

And so what we realized was we had to take some steps to deal with these underlying chronic problems that have confronted our economy for a very long time and health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore. We couldn't ignore it because the cost of health care has been escalating faster than just about anything else, and I don't need to tell you all that. Even if you have health insurance, you've seen your co-payments, your premiums skyrocket, even if you get health care from your employer, that employers' costs have skyrocketed and they're starting to pass more and more of those costs on to their employees.

More people don't get health care from their employers. And in addition, what you're seeing was that at the state level and at the federal level, the costs of health care, because people weren't getting it on the job and were trying to get it through the CHIP program or Medicaid or disability or what have you, all those costs were driving our government bankrupt.

Anybody who is out there who is concerned about the deficit, the single biggest driver of our deficit is the ever escalating cost of health care. So, it was bankrupting families, companies, and our government, so we said we had to take this on. And most of all as I traveled around the country, I'd hear stories from families in every single state, you know, they had a child who had a pre-existing condition and they couldn't get health insurance. Or they thought they had insurance only to find out that in the fine print there was some sort of lifetime limit of the sort that Paul described, they bump up next against it and suddenly they're out of luck and potentially going to lose their home or lose whatever savings they had because the insurance that they thought they were getting wasn't going to fully cover them.

Some people will tell -- would tell me stories about how just as they got sick, the insurance company would've gone through their form and saw some innocuous mistake and just dropped their coverage because they hadn't listed -- in some extreme cases, we had folks who, you know, had a gallbladder problem 15 years ago that had nothing to do with the sickness that they were now experiencing, but the insurance company said, oh, you forgot to list that and so we're going to drop you from your insurance.

I met young people all across the country who starting off in life getting their first job weren't getting health insurance and couldn't stay on their parents' policies. So the amount of vulnerability that was out there was horrendous. And what I said to myself and what I said to my team was even as we were dealing with this big crisis, immediate crisis with respect to the economy, we've got to start doing something to make sure that ordinary folks who are feeling insecure because of health care costs, that they get some relief.

So, the reason we're here today is that thanks to outstanding work by people like Jim, thanks to outstanding implementation by folks like Kathleen, we are now actually able to provide some help to the American people. Essentially part of the -- part of the Affordable Care Act that we can implement right now and will take effect -- is it today or tomorrow? Tomorrow. See, Francis knows.

That we can -- that will take effect tomorrow is the most important patients' bill of rights that we've ever seen in our history. And let me just tick off some of the things that are going to be the case starting tomorrow. No. 1, Paul already mentioned, the issue of lifetime limits. That is not going to be the rule anymore after tomorrow. If you've got a policy, you get sick, the insurance company covers you. No. 2, pre-existing conditions for children. Children who have pre-existing conditions are going to be covered. No. 3, we're going to make sure that if young people don't have health insurance through their employer that they can stay on their parents' health insurance up to the age of 26, which is obviously a huge relief for a lot of parents who are seeing their young people just coming out of college and not being able to get insurance.

You're going to be able to make sure that the insurance company doesn't drop you because of an innocent mistake on your insurance form. This rule of rescission, they are not going to be able to drop you arbitrarily, which gives you more security. No. 4, you're going to be able to choose your doctor and not have to go through some network in an emergency situation as a consequence to these rules, so it gives customers more choice and more options.

There's so many good things about this, I may have forgotten one. Kathleen, anything else?

Right. And preventive care. I knew there was one more. Preventive care will now be offered under your policy, which over the long-term can actually save people money, because you get diagnosed quicker. So, all these things are designed not to have government more involved in health care, they're designed to make sure that you have basic protections in your interactions with your insurance company, that you're getting what you paid for, that you have some basic measures of protection in interacting with the health care system, which means that you're not going to go bankrupt, you're not going to lose your house if, heaven forbid, you end up having an accident. And you're able to get the quality care that you need.

Now, obviously there are a whole host of other things involved in the health care reforms that we initiated. Small businesses, four million of them are going to get a huge tax break if they start providing health insurance to their employees. We've got measures that make sure that Medicare, that the life of Medicare is extended and in fact, we just got a report today that the Medicare Advantage program that we have modified and scrutinized more carefully that, in fact, rates are going to be lower for that than they were before.

I just met with state insurance commissioners from all across the country. They are newly empowered to look after consumers. And I'll just give you one example. In North Carolina, in part because of the new leverage that insurance commissioners have, the insurance commissioner there was able to get $125 million rebate for 200,000 customers in North Carolina. And they are seeing the lowest rate increases ever. All this is going to lower premiums, it's going to make health care more affordable, it's going to give you more security. That's the concept behind what we're implementing.

But, rather than me do all the talking, I want to make sure that some people who have struggled in the past with the health care system have an opportunity to tell their story because basically the reason we did this was because of the stories I had heard from folks like you all across the country and I want to make sure that a couple of you have a chance to tell your stories before I take some questions.

So, we're going to start with Dawn. Where's Dawn? Dawn's right here. Dawn's already got her own mike. Introduce yourself, Dawn, and tell us a little bit about yourself and your situation.

DAWN JOSEPHSON, JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA: Thank you. I'm Dawn Josephson from Jacksonville, Florida. And I've been a self-employed entrepreneur since 1998, during that time, majority of those years I didn't even have insurance because it was simply too expensive. In 2006, my son Wesley was born -- this is Wesley, little --

OBAMA: Hi Wes, come on over here and high-five me.

JOSEPHSON: Go say hi. There you go.

OBAMA: This is Wesley, here.

JOSEPHSON: That's Wesley, he was born in 2006. And that's when we got -- we finally got health insurance. We had a few different policies over the years, always had something excluded from it, even something as silly as ear infections. I mean, what kid does not get ear infections? So, I mean, silly stuff. In July of '09, he had eye surgery. We discovered he had sudden onset of a condition called strabismus in the eyes, and his right eye need surgery. So we had the surgery, and in less than a year later, we said we need new insurance. What we had was killing us for our premium. And this was right around the time -- right after the act passed.

The insurance company gave us an affordable rate. We were looking for a very affordable plan. And when she told us we were approved, my immediate response was -- but what's not covered? And I knew full well we were going to have an exclusion for my son's eye and she said, you're covered. Nothing's not covered. And I said, OK, I'm not being very clear here with my questioning. What about my son? She said, yeah, your son's covered. I said, no, you don't understand. What if he needs another surgery on his eye? Are you going to pay for it? They said, yes, he's covered. And I was shocked. And she said, we can no longer exclude pre-existing conditions for children.

And it didn't hit me until later that night when I was talking with my husband as to why she said that and we started talking about it. And I said, wow, something affected me personally from, you know, the government. It was really shocking. Not only did we have a more affordable plan, but my son is now covered, no matter what happens. It is routine for children with strabismus to need multiple surgeries. And I know now that that's not going to have to come out of our pocket, which was a big fear.

So, I'm very thankful and grateful. Thank you so much for everything you've done, President Obama, and everything everyone has done to push this through because it's made our life a lot less stressful as just an average American family.

OBAMA: That's a wonderful story. Thank you, Dawn. Next up, I want to talk to Gayle, who flew down here from New Hampshire and I had a chance --

HARRIS: OK, that's the president, listening to health care stories and then he will take some questions, so we'll jump out for a second and to more of the particulars. More on the health care changes that are taking effect tomorrow. Insurers will have to start following a bunch of new rules that will certainly impact you. And Josh has that for us -- Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, Tony, a lot of what we're hearing about there and what I'm about to talk to you here, is there was a lot of debate between a lot of Republicans and a lot of Democrats. There are some basics, there was some common ground, though we didn't hear probably enough about through the debate, but some of these things about taking care of kids with pre-existing conditions, a lot of this is what really, in general, you see a lot of people wanted to see. And tomorrow, because it marks six months since the president signed that legislation, that's the date that some of these big changes will come into effect.

I'm going to tell you, though, it might not come into effect through you. Most people who get it through work won't actually see the changes affect you until your health plan renews, which is generally January 1. But plans that are sold to new individuals or groups, starting tomorrow, there could be some changes right away.

Here's what I want to do, I want to show you some changes, and then I want to show you why they might not apply to your plan. Here's the deal. One of them to know about is free preventive care. Now, this new legislation gets rid of co-payments and co-insurance I 2011 for a lot of basic preventive services.

Here's another one, level charges for emergency services. This new law is requiring that insurers take away anything you needing to get prior authorization before you go to an E.R., that has to be gone. Also, they can't charge you more if the E.R. you go to is out of network, because clearly you had an emergency, had a reason to go there.

Another one here -- a dependent coverage through age 26. If you have a dependent who is 26 or younger and cannot get another kind of employer-base health care plan, yours will have to cover that dependent. And finally, patient-friendly appeals process. This law actually says that while a claim is under review, there has to be a new internal and external appeals process. The insurance company has to pay everything and subsequent care as long as that appeals process is going on, so these are the kinds of things that a lot of people said, hey, I really want -- I think it's really important.

Now, here's the trick. All of these things I just showed you do not apply to your plan if your plan is what's called grandfathered. And so one thing you need to do is find out wherever you get your health insurance from, if it's through your job, you want to find out if your plan is grandfathered or not. It's going to be tougher each year to grandfather a plan, but if yours is, the things I showed you will not apply to yours even on January 1. The employer doesn't have to follow those.

But there are a few things that will and that are supposed to apply to everybody, like no lifetime limits and children being covered for pre-existing conditions. And finally, insurers cannot rescind your coverage. If you get sick, they can't take it away. Stuff like that is supposed to apply to absolutely everybody. So, it's worth, all of you out there, checking on what's going to happen to your specific plan whenever these changes come into play.

HARRIS: Very good, Josh. Thank you, sir.

LEVS: Sure, you got it.

HARRIS: Still to come. A prominent preacher accused of pressuring young men into gay sex. We will update the story for you in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, we've got breaking news on the future plans for a White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Let's go to our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry for that.

Ed, what do you have?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tony, we're now hearing from two people close to Rahm Emanuel that there's a good chance that he will be stepping down as soon as October, just next month as chief of staff in order to focus full-time running for mayor. Now, to be clear, these people closet to Emanuel are saying that he has not firmly made up his mind yet to run for mayor, but it's all but a certainty he will run. He's, right now, tied up in making sure some of the president's initiatives get through the Senate in the final days of the Senate wrapping up before it goes home to campaign.

A key date to watch is when the Senate leaves. Originally they said they were going to adjourn on October 8. Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash now hearing Democrats may leave as soon as the end of next week, around October 1.

Once that happens, I'm told by these people close to Emanuel it's going to happen very rapidly that he's going to make a decision one way or the other, likely he's going to run for mayor and then he's going to be gone. He realized he needs to focus full-time on that. He has until late November to get the signatures he needs to get on the ballot. He's got a primary, a big Democratic primary in February of next year.

And another new piece of information we're picking up is that it's likely that Pete Rouse, who's a deputy chief of staff, here, would at least take over on an interim basis. It's not expected that Pete Rouse would be the long-term chief of staff, but would bridge this.

There's a lot going on here, Larry Summers, yesterday, the top economic official, saying he's going to leave by the end of the year. So, they want to have somebody firm, have a transition in place, but it's not likely that by early October the president would have a full- time chief of staff ready to go, so you may see someone like Pete Rouse step in the short-term.

But, the bottom line is it's looking more and more likely and possible that Rahm Emanuel will be leaving in October -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK, breaking news from Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent. Ed, appreciate it, thank you.

Mega church pastor, Eddie Long, accused in a gay sex lawsuit. Two young men, who were members of Long's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church have filed suits, they claim he used his position as their spiritual counselor to coerce them into sexual relationships when they were teenagers. Long's congregation, just outside of Atlanta, is 25,000 members strong. He has publicly condemned homosexuals and has built a reputation for ministering to young men.

One of the young men accusing Long was recently charged with burglarizing the pastor's office. A spokesman for Long points to that as being a motive for the lawsuit. We heard from both sides in the case.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ART FRANKLIN, SPOKESMAN FOR BISHOP LONG: It's a case of retaliation and a shakedown for money by men with some serious credibility issues who are trying to mount their own defense. This is something that went from 48 hours from contact with the attorney flinging outrageous demands to this dog and pony show that began yesterday.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B.J. BERNSTEIN, PLAINTIFF'S ATTY: We're not hiding this, it's in the lawsuit. He broke into the church, because if you ask any expert who deals with especially young people who have been exploited and sexually abused, there is incredible anger. And it says in the lawsuit, in May of this year his best friend died, he had gone to the bishop for counseling and solace because, again, he had known him since he was 14 years old, and the bishop then made a move on him and that created a frenzy inside of him, it awoken him to how far this man didn't care about him and just was using him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right, let's talk more about who Bishop Eddie Long is and why he has had such a huge impact. And for that, we're bringing in Josh Levs -- Josh.

LEVS: And Tony, I know, a lot of us reporters in this region who have covered this before, have followed the story and for some of you who might not be familiar, I'll talk to you a little bit about the basics of him, because there are repercussions, here. I know we have a little bit of video of the church.

The first thing to understand here is that New Missionary Baptist Church isn't just a huge mega church, it is a leader in a religious movement in America. The mega church phenomenon, particularly in the African-American community, and particularly with Prosperity Gospel. That has grown exponentially over the last couple of decades. And New Missionary Baptist Church, itself, is sprawling.

This church has a $50 million complex, it's got a football field, basketball courts, tons of things there, 10,000 seats and multiple services because more than enough people to fill more than once. Long himself is credited with making the church the empire that it is.

He's 57 years old, he was raised in the South, son of a reverend, he's one of four boys. He actually started his career in business and then became ordained as a pastor, and along with the rise of the church, he became very, very wealthy, raking in millions of dollars. TV viewers watch him from around the world, as well, they watch him preach from the pulpit. He's written books, he's helped produce hip hop CDs, Christian CDs. He has a lot of fans and for a lot of people, he is a household name.

Here's what a couple of people in Atlanta said when they heard this news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't believe that's true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man love his wife with a passion. Everybody know he love his wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: I'll tell you, he has faced controversies before, but nothing like this, nothing remotely like this. Back in 2005, the "Atlanta Journal Constitution" reported on the question of his handling money involving his charity, some money that was funneled through his charity. And in 2006, the Senate looked into several televangelists in America, checking whether they were using tax exempt status to finance lavish lifestyles. And Ed Long has maintained his innocence, has always said that he's done nothing wrong.

And he has a bunch of awards, Tony, too. I was looking at his list of awards, this morning, I mean, he was named an honorary sheriff in DeKalb County. He had got Big Brothers and Big Sisters gave him a Legacy award. The CDC honored him for bringing attention to AIDS and talking about it, so we're talking about someone who is very liked, very respected, and a huge figure in Prosperity Gospel in America, that's how big this is.

HARRIS: Yeah, it is a -- that's a huge story here, Josh. All right. Got to tell you homosexuality really has caused a lot of soul searching in churches across America.

J.L. King is the author of "On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of Straight Black Men who Sleep with Men." And he joins us now.

J.L., good to talk to you.

J.L. KING, AUTHOR: Thank you.

HARRIS: I had to have a conversation before this just to sort of better understand how we could approach this conversation, because these are accusations, allegations at this point. Nothing's been proven against the bishop, Eddie Long. But were you shocked to hear, to read about these accusations from these two young men against the bishop?

KING: No, I was not.

HARRIS: You weren't?

KING: No, I was not shocked. When I was doing research for my first book, I've talked with thousands of men around the world who shared with me about the struggles of being in the church, who got church every Sunday, and hear their pastors talk about homosexuality as the worst sin. In the African-American community, homosexuality is the biggest taboo, that we put it over and above everything else.

I've talked to pastors and bishops and lay leaders and people who go to church every Sunday, who hear the pastor talking about and dogging out the gay members: members in the choir, members who are on a deacon board, members who pay heavy tithes every Sunday. So no, I'm not surprised. And I think we're going to hear more of this type of behavior coming out of the church.

HARRIS: Well, two things here. It's one thing to not be surprised that there could be clergy involved in this kind of activity. I guess I'm asking more specifically if you were surprised to hear of these allegations, accusations against the bishop, Eddie Long.

KING: No, because I really don't know Bishop Long personally. So, I can't really say I was surprised --

HARRIS: Good. OK.

KING: I don't know him personally and I can't say that. But I'm not surprised to hear about the behavior.

HARRIS: Good, good I wanted that as a point of clarification. But there is -- is clearly this tension over gay life, homosexuality in the black church and how it is dealt with in the black church. Can you explain that to everyone watching us, right now?

KING: I grew up in the church. You know, from the time I came out of my mother's womb, I grew up in the church. I would go to small churches and the church I grew up in, just, again, hearing the pastor almost every third Sunday talking about homosexuality is an abomination, and God did not make that, God does not love you, you're going to Hell.

And then as I grew up hearing that God made HIV to destroy gay people. And even in 2010, with more people being more accepting to sexuality, in the black community, you hear the same hatred messages coming from the pulpit. And the church is so powerful in our community, the church has really the power to start changing attitudes, to bring healing to our community. And all the young people are struggling with their sexuality, they go to the church looking for that understanding, that love, but instead, they keep hearing you're going to Hell, you're an abomination, you are less than, God hates you. And that causes a lot of men, old or young to do at-risk behavior, to look at hiding on the down low, to marry women when they know that's not who they are.

HARRIS: You know what? You've written a best-selling book on this subject.

KING: Yes.

HARRIS: There are a lot of people I would imagine are listening to us now -- and there's the title of the book "On the Down Low." Will you explain what that means to be on --

KING: On the down low.

HARRIS: Will you explain that to people across the country who may not be familiar with that phraseology?

KING: Sure, being on the down low means many things to many people, but for my own interpretation of it is when you're living a double life.

HARRIS: From your own life experience.

KING: I used to be a down low guy, but you're on the down low, you're living two lives, you're having sex with men on the side and not sharing that with your wife or with your girlfriend. No one knows that. You keep that on the hush-hush. To be on the down low means you're living two lives, you're constantly covering up your tracks. you say whatever you need to say to make sure people don't look at you as being anything but a straight, heterosexual man.

You know, and it's a hard life, man. That's why I decided to move away from it. Life is too short. Life is way too short to try to cover up something and not be who you are.

HARRIS: Whether the allegations against bishop long are true or not, how will the news of the lawsuits be received in the gay community, you think?

KING: I think they will be witch hunts constantly going after him because of him being so outspoken against gay rights, gay marriage, gay adoption, gay everything. So I think it's, hopefully I'm hoping that it will open up conversations in the church, so leaders will sit down and really have dialogue with their members and allow those men to come out and say this is who I am. It think it starts from the top.

HARRIS: The clergy you spoke into who are living this double life, what's the reason they give for not living a more open life?

KING: The bottom line? Fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of loss. Fear of acceptance. And that's the bottom line. Fear. And when you're under fear, it'll make you do things that you know that's not right.

HARRIS: OK. J.L., appreciate it.

KING: Thank you.

HARRIS: Thanks for spending the time with us.

Still to come, after making hundreds of people sick, an apology for salmonella-tainted eggs. A hearing underway right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS (voice-over): Pictures, information, insight you won't find anywhere else. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris. Anything can happen.

Five hundred-fifty million eggs were recalled. Hundreds of people became sick. Now the main egg producers responsible for the largest U.S. egg salmonella outbreak are apologizing.

Congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill. Brianna, is the testimony underway? And what are we expecting to hear in addition to this apology?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now, we're hearing from the committee members, Tony. And then we're going to start hearing testimony, first up, from some of the victims of this salmonella outbreak that happened last month. But then we'll be hearing from these big egg producers. And the bottom line is we'll expecting to be saying that they are sorry, to be falling on their swords a bit.

But the really big player in this egg recall, Wright County Egg of Iowa. We're expecting that they're going to tell the committee that they believe the source of this outbreak was an ingredient in the feed that was given to their chickens. This was an ingredient that came from a third-party supplier, they say. And we're also expecting these two egg producers -- and these are huge egg producers, Tony. I mean, Wright County Egg, 1.4 billion, with a B, eggs per year.

HARRIS: Wow. KEILAR: So, they're going to be trying to assure this committee they're doing everything they can to make sure this doesn't happen again, that they're vaccinating chickens against salmonella, that they're cleaning up contaminated barns that FDA inspectors officials just found to be in deplorable conditions. And also that they're doing salmonella testing of the feed ingredients.

But we know at this point that the FDA, and it appears, the Department of Justice is involved in investigating this whole thing. There were a couple of federal agents who at the end of last month went to check out both of these farms. This is pretty serious. A potentially criminal matter at this point.

HARRIS: Yes. Are these witnesses potentially facing any penalties over all with this?

KEILAR: You know, it's hard to tell. We're going to be hearing from a representative of the FDA. And obviously, when you're talking about the FDA, maybe you're looking at fines. But when you're talking about the Department of Justice being involved, and I should say that they're not putting out a whole lot of information about what really the status of this criminal investigation is, although we do know that federal agents went to these farms. That would obviously be a more serious matter. So, we're still waiting to find out some of those answers.

HARRIS: Okay. Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us. Brianna, good to see you. Thank you.

Let's take a break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Jack, come on! Let's get everyone to CNNmoney.com here. And we can take a look at the lead story. The FDA - OK, that's a good story. It's a lead story. There's important news there.

I'm looking for something that really -- okay. Obviously, stocks are under pressure as gold surges. Everyone buys gold as a hedge against the economy. And maybe a further downturn.

Okay. So, that's CNNmoney.com. We are three hours into the trading day now. Let's take a look at stocks. We're in negative territory. We've been in negative territory for most of the day. We are down 29 points, and of course, we'll follow these numbers for you throughout the day right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta uncovers a really heart-wrenching medical mystery. A little girl battling an unknown killer. He will introduce us into some incredible doctor detectives when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: For the last year, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been following patients with diseases that are true medical mysteries. One's a little girl, the other, a mother of five. The Undiagnosed Diseases Program is their last hope. Dr. Gupta introduces us to them and their doctor detectives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kylie McPeak was sick and getting sicker. Her parents spent nearly two years with specialists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect.

GUPTA: No one could diagnose what was happening to Kylie. Her voice tremored.

The twitches that were convulsing the entire right side of her body.

G. MCPEAK: I'm a bad parent. Why can't I help my kid? So --

S. MCPEAK: I can't really put it into words. Just helpless.

GUPTA: Kylie had once been a perfectly healthy toddler, until it was as if an invisible force was at war with her body. Her parents videotaped their little girl's descent.

G. MCPEAK: Turn your head towards us. Good girl. Look at mama.

GUPTA: But not a single doctor knew what was happening to Kylie.

Dr. William Gahl was chief investigator at UDP, the Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institute of Health.

DR. WILLIAM GAHL, CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, UDP, NIH: I remember vividly that first time that I met her by video. It was at one of our UDP board meetings.

G. MCSPEAK: Can you smile for me?

GAHL: You could have heard a pin drop for that girl. There were 65 people and they're all essentially emoting over this, you know, terrible occurrence.

GUPTA: Last year, Kylie was accepted into the undiagnosed diseases program.

S. MCPEAK: This is our last hope but at the same time it's -- we finally made it to the people that are going to find out what's wrong.

GUPTA: A mysterious force was also assaulting Sally Massagee's body. At 53, a wife and a mother of five, her muscles were growing out of control. She was in excruciating pain. She, too, was accepted to the Undiagnosed Diseases Program.

MASSAGEE: I felt certain that if there wasn't a diagnosis, I felt like it was pretty certain that it would kill me.

GUPTA: This is super impressive. I mean, you really see a cleavage right in the middle of her back because those muscles are so, so big.

First suspicion? Sally looked like a steroid junkie. But she wasn't; absolutely no evidence of that.

MASSAGEE: I just turned off the feelings and I just couldn't -- it was really painful to look in the mirror.

GUPTA: Sally's husband, Buddy.

BUDDY MASSAGEE, SALLY'S HUSBAND: I was scared. You're just waiting to find out what's next. What normal, functional thing people have to do to get through the day, which she will not be able to do.

GUPTA: No one could offer an explanation of what was happening to Sally. The medical SWAT teach of doctors and specialists at the Undiagnosed Diseases Program quickly ruled out one possibility.

GAHL: Bottom line, (INAUDIBLE) not involved. It's not acromegaly, just confined to the muscle. What in the world could this be?

GUPTA: That's always the question. Kylie and her parents made their way from Reno, Nevada to Bethesda, Maryland and the NIH, in hopes of finding ads. What in the world could be wrong with Kylie?

(on camera): Do you want to know what's going on with Kylie if the next sentence was that there's nothing we can do about it?

S. MCPEAK: Yes.

GUPTA: Why?

S. MCPEAK: Just -- it's nice -- I think it would be nice to have a prognosis to know. I mean even if it's treatable, if it is terminal, then how much time we have left, as opposed to not knowing, you know, it could all end tomorrow.

GUPTA (voice-over): Kylie will undergo a week-long series of complex tests and evaluations by top medical specialist at NIH.

It's physically draining for everyone. For Kylie's mom and dad, emotionally wrenching. The week is intense.

GAHL: I don't think anybody has seen anything quite like Kylie. This is a very complex case, and it could be difficult to solve.

GUPTA: Clearly in the right leg, I see a lot of movement here. The right foot sort of -- the foot is turned inward. They call that dystonia or abnormal tone. Not a lot of tone in these muscle groups over here.

Left side has a little bit, as well, but not -- not quite as bad, other than there's that constant movement going on. You can see it in the feet; you can see it in the hands. You can see it in her eyelids and clearly, in her voice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you pinch the wings of the fly for me?

GUPTA: Dr. Gahl and his team look at everything for clue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So confused about what happens to these people.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: That's a very important clue.

DR. CAMILO TORO, NEUROLOGIST: It's very important, yes.

GUPTA (voice-over): Kylie's tasks begin in early morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful. Can I tell you something? You are all done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good job.

GUPTA: And go late into the night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Baby, blink. OK.

S. MCPEAK: It's hard. Extremely hard. Hopefully, it's for a good cause.

GUPTA: In the hallways, specialists hold meetings on the fly, throwing out new theories, hoping something they've learned fits into the bigger puzzle and a singular diagnosis.

TORO: A lot of unanswered questions, absolutely.

GUPTA (on camera): For a lot of patients, as we were, you know, investigating this, you really got the sense that this ends up being a place of last hope or last resort for them. That's a lot of pressure.

GAHL: Well, it is. We try to be realistic about it and get our patients to be realistic about the issues, too. We've been to the best places in the country. Now you're coming here. We only have 10- 15 percent success rate, so I don't want you to get your hopes up really too, too high.

But on the other hand, we don't want to take hope away.

GUPTA: Sally Massagee knew what she was doing there.

SALLY MASSAGEE, PATIENT: I took that disclaimer and I heard it. But I still (INAUDIBLE), there's hope.

(END VIDEOTAPE) TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And you can see more on the doctor detectives tonight on "Anderson Cooper 360" at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

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HARRIS: OK. Time now for your "CNN Equals Politics" update. Deputy political editor, Paul Steinhauser, and "The Best Political Team on Television" joining us now from Washington.

Paul, good to see you. What's crossing now?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR: Tony, let's talk about the man in demand it seems like. And I'm talking about New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He's really become a king maker this election cycle. A lot of people from both parties wanting his endorsement.

Today he made another big endorsement. He officially supported Andrew Cuomo, New York state's attorney general, as the Democratic nominee for governor there. That happened just less than two hours ago, Tony. And this is interesting to see how this will play out in this election. A brand new poll came out just hours earlier and it indicated that Cuomo is only a few points ahead of Carl Paladino. He is the Buffalo real estate developer, backed by the Tea Party movement. He won the primary last week and he's closing in, as the polls suggest, up there in New York. We're going to keep a close eye on that race.

Take a look at this. David Jenkins. If you could come right in here to the CNN Political Ticker. Brand new today, I just learned about this earlier today, Tony. The Tea Party Express, they're announcing new details about their new bus tour. Their press release says that the tour is going to be called "Liberty at the Ballot Box."

And you know what? I learned from a source that the tour is going to be two weeks long and it's going to end on November 2nd, Election Day.

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

STEINHAUSER: And it's going to end in the home state of Nevada, Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate Majority leader. Tea Party Express, really been going after him, Tony. We're going to have a lot of coverage of that, I'm sure.

And finally, let's talk about the president himself. I guess he's been playing the role of fundraiser in chief tonight. Because he's going to be in New York City, as we know, later today for the United Nations General Assembly, doing official duties. But tonight he teams up with Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader. They're going to have a fundraiser. The president will be the keynote -- you know, the main attraction there. And the party expect to raise some big bucks, they hope. Remember, the Democrats think if they can raise a lot of money and spend it on get out the vote efforts and on television commercials, it may soften the blows come November. Tony, a lot of stuff on the CNN Political Ticker.

HARRIS: Oh, yes. Boy, sounds like it.

Paul, appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Your next political update coming in one hour. And for the latest political news, just go to cnnpolitics.com.

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HARRIS: All right. Let's get you caught up on top stories now. Some big changes in health care coverage take place tomorrow, six months after President Obama signed the landmark reform bill. The president is marking the occasion at an event in Virginia. Among the measure is key changes if you have a child under age 19 with a pre- existing condition, insurance plans can no longer deny coverage. And insurance companies can no longer drop you if you fall ill.

Two young men are suing prominent Atlanta minister Bishop Eddie Long, accusing him of coercing them into sex. Long often speaks out against homosexuality. A church spokesman denies the allegations and calls them a shakedown.

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HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with our chief business correspondent and the host of CNN NEWSROOM, Ali Velshi, in New York City.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony -- Tony, I miss you in person. That's the highlight of my day, starting --

HARRIS: Come on back, doctor. Come on.

VELSHI: I'm going to come back. I miss you.

HARRIS: Yes, sir.

VELSHI: You have a great afternoon.

HARRIS: Yes, have a great show.