Clyburn pushes for Medicaid expansion amid infrastructure drama

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Wednesday said it would be “unAmerican” not to prioritize Medicaid expansion in the Democrats’s social spending package amid an intra-party clash over health care priorities.

Clyburn one of the leaders advocating to include a provision for the federal government to step in and provide Medicaid coverage in the 12 GOP-led states that have so far declined the coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

The provision would be included in President Biden’s Build Back Better plan.

Tension with progressives: With a limited amount of funds for a slew of health care priorities, there is tension with progressives, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are pushing for expanding Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing coverage.

Clyburn on Wednesday made the case for prioritizing Medicaid over adding to Medicare, noting that Medicaid serves low-income people while Medicare serves seniors regardless of income, meaning it includes even “billionaires.”

“I think it would be unAmerican of us to continue to do the things that are necessary to get our economy back going and leave these 200,000 South Carolinians out, leave the Americans, the citizens in these 12 states, leave them behind as we go on to improve other parts of health care services in our country,” Clyburn said on a press call hosted by the group Protect Our Care.