Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a victory lap Thursday after the Supreme Court upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, saying in an MSNBC interview that people now stop her on the street to thank her for the law’s passage.
“I think this law has always been about people who wanted and needed desperately affordable health coverage,” Sebelius said Thursday.
The Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit that argued that the government does not have the authority to offer subsidies to people signing up for coverage through the federal health care exchanges.
“There are 6.4 million people who now know the coverage that they have, can continue on with subsidies and millions more who can take advantage of it. I’ve been a lucky one, I’ve always had affordable, available health care,” Sebelius said.
“So I feel great for the people who talk to me every day in the grocery store and on airplanes and stop me on sidewalks and tell me that this has changed their life forever. They no longer have to worry about affording health care if they get sick, taking care of their kids, and this is a very good day for those Americans,” she added.
Prior to her exit from the Department of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was embroiled in controversy surrounding the disastrous rollout of the glitchy, multibillion dollar healthcare.gov website.
The Obama administration was criticized at the time for placing the website’s many failures on Sebelius’ shoulders. MSNBC.com senior editor Beth Fouhy at one point chastised the president for “sniping” at the former secretary.
