Kellyanne Conway says those who lose their Medicaid coverage under the proposed Republican health care plan can find a job that provides health insurance instead.
In an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Conway, counselor to President Trump, said that Obamacare expanded Medicaid to those who did not truly need it, because they were able to work. She was defending the Senate’s proposed health care bill, which would make big cuts to Medicaid, by lowering the income limit for those who qualify, among other measures.
“Obamacare took Medicaid, which was designed to help the poor, the needy, the sick, disabled, also children and pregnant women, it took it and went way above the poverty line and opened it up to many able-bodied Americans,” she said. Those “should probably find other — at least see if there are other options for them.”
.@KellyannePolls: Obamacare opened up Medicaid to "many able-bodied Americans who should at least see if there are others options for them." pic.twitter.com/fzqvuwXrXB
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 25, 2017
She continued:
“If they are able-bodied and they want to work, then they’ll have employer-sponsored benefits like you and I do.”
Many Americans who are covered by Medicaid are already working, often in lower-paying jobs that may not have health insurance benefits, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, cited by CNBC. According to the foundation, “Among Medicaid adults (including parents and childless adults — the group targeted by the Medicaid expansion [under Obamacare]) nearly 8 in 10 live in working families, and a majority are working themselves.”