A top Obama administration official said Wednesday that she likely will agree to expand Medicaid for pregnant women and children exposed to lead in the drinking water in Flint, Mich.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to temporarily extend the federal health insurance program to pregnant women and children up to age 21 who live in Flint, where recently discovered unsafe drinking water has prompted outrage across the country and anger against Snyder. Pregnant women and children are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead-contaminated drinking water.
“I think we will be able to approve an expansion of Medicaid for pregnant women and children,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “My expectation is we will be able to do most of what is in the waiver request and we will be able to do that quickly.”
Medicaid provides health insurance to low-income people, but its income threshold for coverage varies by state. Michigan, under Republican Snyder, has adopted a more limited version of Medicaid expansion under President Obama’s healthcare law.
