House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that Congress should require states to expand Medicaid to the poor under Obamacare, a mandate that was part of the law before the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
Pelosi made the comments during a town hall on MSNBC Friday after an attendee asked her how Democrats in the House will work to fix the healthcare law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Pelosi told attendees that she would work toward "strengthening the law so that it is required that states will have — expand Medicaid, very, very important.”
Asked to explain the remarks, a senior aide to Pelosi told the Washington Examiner that House Democrats were "looking at a variety of ways to push more states to adopt the Medicaid expansion."
Obamacare was originally written to have all states expand Medicaid to low-income people making less than roughly $17,000 a year and would have cut off all Medicaid funding from states that didn't go along with the rule. A 7-2 Supreme Court decision in 2012 made the provision optional, however, and so just over a dozen states haven't moved to expand.
Pelosi made the comments during a town hall on MSNBC Friday after an attendee asked her how Democrats in the House will work to fix the healthcare law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Pelosi told attendees that she would work toward "strengthening the law so that it is required that states will have — expand Medicaid, very, very important.”
Asked to explain the remarks, a senior aide to Pelosi told the Washington Examiner that House Democrats were "looking at a variety of ways to push more states to adopt the Medicaid expansion."
Obamacare was originally written to have all states expand Medicaid to low-income people making less than roughly $17,000 a year and would have cut off all Medicaid funding from states that didn't go along with the rule. A 7-2 Supreme Court decision in 2012 made the provision optional, however, and so just over a dozen states haven't moved to expand.
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