BLITZER: And joining us now the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius.

Thanks so much for joining us. Welcome to THE SITUATION ROOM.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Glad to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Will there be health care reform enacted this year?

SEBELIUS: I'm confident that the parties are coming together and with the president's leadership we will get a bill passed and signed into law this year. BLITZER: Why isn't the administration crafting the legislation? Because it seems like you've punted, you've told members of Congress, "You put it together. We'll give you some advice. But we're not going to do it."

SEBELIUS: I think this president looked at the experiences really over the last 50 years of lots of chief executives saying they wanted to pass health reform and not getting it done, and particularly paid attention to what happened in the early '90s when a bill was crafted, put together by the White House, delivered...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: That was Hillarycare, as it was called, it was the -- it was the Bill Clinton health care...

SEBELIUS: That's correct.

BLITZER: ... initiative, which was so complicated, more than 1,000 pages, it collapsed in the face of a lot of opposition.

So what I hear you saying is that you've learned from that blunder and now you've decided to let Henry Waxman and Ted Kennedy and all those guys on the Hill put this legislation together.

SEBELIUS: Well, the president had a plan he talked about a lot in the campaign, and it is universal coverage, it has to lower costs for all families, not just families who don't have insurance, but help families who currently have coverage. It wants high quality care. We want to transform the health system.

So there's some principles and definitely an outline of that plan, but he knows it won't pass, it won't be successful unless Congress engages, and that's just what's going on.

BLITZER: Will there be universal health insurance, universal health care enacted? In other words, will every American be eligible to get health insurance once your legislation is enacted?

SEBELIUS: Well, that's certainly one of the principles the president has as a core.

BLITZER: Everybody?

SEBELIUS: Absolutely, everybody.

BLITZER: Universal?

SEBELIUS: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And when do you think that will happen?

SEBELIUS: Well, Congress is on a very aggressive agenda to pass the legislation. I think that what most people understand is that the legislation may be phased in, but we're definitely looking at covering all Americans, making sure that we get the pinnings under way. One of the first bills that the president signed was insuring 4 million more American children under the CHIP program.

SEBELIUS: And that rollout is starting. We want to make sure that Medicaid and Medicare will...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So you think that this would be phased in over a period of years, if you get your way?

SEBELIUS: Well, I think that a lot of people are talking about a 2012 start date, or 2011. I don't know how fast things like an information exchange can be up and running, making sure that the system pieces are in place, but definitely it will start soon.

BLITZER: Will this be a single payer system along the lines of Medicare?

SEBELIUS: No. I think that what the president has made it very clear is he wants to actually build on the supporting system. There are about 85 million Americans who have employer-based health coverage and are very satisfied -- a lot of them are very satisfied with the coverage they have. They don't know what's going to happen to the cost...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So you don't want to simply expand Medicare to include everyone?

SEBELIUS: That's correct.

BLITZER: But there are some who would like to do that.

SEBELIUS: There -- there definitely are some single-payer advocates. But that is not the president's proposal, and I think he -- he thinks choice, that Americans should have choice of doctors and providers, have an opportunity to keep that coverage that they have, if they like their coverage.

BLITZER: Here's what the president said during the campaign:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you don't have health insurance, like 45 million Americans don't have health insurance, then we're going to make sure you can buy the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves, and we will subsidize you if you can't afford it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Does that still hold?

SEBELIUS: Well, there definitely are -- again, there isn't a plan sitting in somebody's desk drawer that answers the questions you're asking with some specificity. But certainly there is a discussion that for the lowest income working Americans, for working parents who can't afford coverage right now, that the government may play a role in helping to subsidize their coverage or -- or it will continue to be unaffordable.

BLITZER: I guess the question is will everyone be eligible for the same kind of health insurance that members of Congress have?

SEBELIUS: Again, the specifics of the -- well, we're talking about benefits, what the benefits look like exactly. That certainly is one of the options being discussed by Congress.

But, also, there may be different kinds of options put forward. But having a choice, having full coverage, real insurance, not catastrophic coverage, not just something that you can tap into if you have a cancer situation or get hit by a car, but coverage that helps American families pay their health bills is what the president's talking about.

BLITZER: Based on what you're seeing and hearing right now -- you've only been on the job for a matter of days, but do you think the doctors, the hospitals, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, they're on board with you or will they fight you?

SEBELIUS: Well, today, there was an historic meeting in the Roosevelt Room in the White House that I participated in, and the representatives, the CEOs of the groups that you've just outlined -- health care providers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, the people who run the biggest health systems in the country -- were there with the president, not only assuring the president that they want to pass health reform this year, that they will be a part of this, but they also are going to take major steps right now to begin lowering costs.

They think they can get about $2 trillion worth of savings out of the current health care system over the 10-year period of time. And that goes a long way to making sure every family saves about $2,500 on average.

BLITZER: Secretary, good luck.

SEBELIUS: Thank you.