Planned Parent of Western Missouri & Kansas CEO Laura McQuade (left) & Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Former Health and Human ServicesSecretary Kathleen Seblius blasted the lawmakers of Kansas and Missouri today for not expanding Medicaid.
Sebelius was the keynote speaker at a luncheon for Planned Parenthood of Western Missouri and Kansas.
She said the decision hurt low income woman the hardest.
“It’s morally repugnant and economically stupid policy for both Missouri and Kansas,”she said.
Sebelius says the decision costs the state of Kansas $1 million a day and the state of Missouri almost $5 million a dollars.
That is money she says Washington would pay the state for expanding their Medicaid programs.
Missouri’s Democratic Governor Jay Nixon has repeatedly pushed for Medicaid expansion, but the Republican Legislature have solidly rejected it each time.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback says he’s open to the idea, but his administration has never pushed for it.
The GOP dominated Kansas legislature does not support expanding Medicaid.
Sebelius, a former Democratic Governor of Kansas, says the attitude toward women health care issues in both state is, in her word, “frightening”.
She cited the abortion waiting periods in place in both states as an example of another blow to low income women.
“It may not affect someone with resources. It damn well affects
somebody who can’t take 2 days off the job, or can’t drive across the state,” she said.
Sebelius predicted the millennials, young adults born from 1980 into the early 2000’s, could have a big impact on the 2016 elections since they are now the largest segment of the population. Sent from my iPhone
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