Sanders dings Haley on Medicaid

SUMTER, South Carolina — As he campaigns through South Carolina, Sen. Bernie Sanders is taking more than a few shots at Gov. Nikki Haley and the state’s conservative legislators on health care.

In multiple speeches here, the liberal Democratic presidential candidate and Independent senator from Vermont has a one-two punch ready: South Carolina should have expanded Medicaid and the decision not to was fueled, at least in part, because President Barack Obama wants that to happen.


“Your governor, your legislature, as well as many many other governors and legislatures in Republican states, put ideology, a rich right-wing ideology, in front of and before the needs of their people,” Sanders told an estimated 500 audience members at the Sumter County Civic Center on Saturday.

“Right here in South Carolina, over 200,000 people would gain health insurance —200,000 people!— if the governor and the legislature would approve the expansion of Medicaid.”

Sanders added that South Carolina would create “tens of thousands” of decent-paying jobs.

“I would appeal to the governor and your legislature: overcome your dislike of President Obama — you dislike him, that’s fine, but don’t punish the people of the state,” Sanders continued.

Sanders made a similar attack a day earlier. Each time, he didn’t mention Haley by name but instead referred to South Carolina’s current governor. It’s a particularly conspicuous jab since Haley has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate, with Medicaid a hot topic on both sides of the campaign trail.

Haley has directly mentioned Obama in vowing not to expand Medicaid. “Not in South Carolina,” she said in 2013. “We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama’s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever.”

Sanders also warned about the dire consequences of not expanding Medicaid.

“It is simply very hard for me to understand, quite honestly, how legislatures and governors, not just in South Carolina but in many states of this country, are rejecting the opportunity to simply get health insurance when in fact virtually all of the costs are coming from the federal government,” Sanders said in a one-on-one interview with POLITICO.

“People in South Carolina and other states will die because they do not have access to healthcare because of the expansion of Medicaid.”

Asked how much of that opposition is fueled by a personal dislike of Obama, Sanders didn’t hold back.

“I think, what, for many of these people, their dislike is that this is an initiative that came from President Obama,” Sanders said. “If President Obama pushed that, it’s something that they have got to reject. And I think that is wrong. I think they should be worrying more about working people, low-income people in their states than their feelings about President Obama.”

Later in his speech on Saturday, Sanders contrasted himself with Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, who is also running for the Republican nomination.

“I am a little bit more progressive than your senators,” Sanders said. “Just a little bit.”