Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius described herself as “deeply troubled and disturbed” at the number of states that have declined Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
“Now we are growing a two-state solution,” Sebelius said in Washington Wednesday at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passage of Medicare and Medicaid.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the federal government couldn’t compel states to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. Since that decision about 28 states have expanded Medicaid, and a majority of red states have opposed expansion as a form of protest to Obamacare.
Sebelius said that the expansion is needed as many people in this country are “too poor to qualify for financial help without the Medicaid expansion.”
She did point to an effort to double the size of community health centers across the country.
These centers offer “low-cost, high-quality primary preventive care and bring doctors, dentists and mental health professionals into the most under serviced communities,” said Sebelius, who stepped down from her post last year.
Sebelius was a controversial figure during her tenure as she helmed the implementation of Obamacare and took heat for the 2013 botched rollout of healthcare.gov.
