Kathleen Sebelius: ‘Morally Wrong’ to Not Expand Medicaid

On Saturday’s “Up with Steve Kornacki” on MSNBC, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius reacted to GOP presidential hopeful John Kasich’s comments from the debate on Medicaid where he said:

You should know that President Reagan expanded Medicaid three or four times. Secondly, I had an opportunity to bring resources back to Ohio. To do what? To treat the mentally ill. Ten thousand of them sit in our prisons. It costs $22,500 a year to keep them in prison. I would rather get them their medication so they can lead a decent life.

In reacting to Kasich’s comments, Sebelius said that there is something “so morally wrong” with not expanding medicaid because workers with lower income cannot afford it.

“If you think about lifting people up, providing healthcare so they don’t go bankrupt if they get sick, they can have access to mental healthcare, which John Kasich talked about or primary healthcare or make sure they can take care of their kids and their family and they become productive workers. I think there’s something so morally wrong with leaving that program on the table and saying to the lowest income workers of your state, ‘Because of my politics, we’re not expanding your healthcare.'”

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