Debating ObamaCare with Kathleen Sebelius

Back in October, I debated ObamaCare with former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Kansas City Public Television recently aired a package featuring the debate.

Complete footage of the debate is available here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.


One memorable moment came after I told the story of Deamonte Driver, a boy from Prince George’s County, Maryland, who died at age 12 because his mother was unable to find a dentist who would accept their Medicaid coverage. An infection that began in an abscessed tooth spread to Deamonte’s brain and ultimately killed him. A dentist could have prevented Deamonte’s death with a simple $80 extraction. But Medicaid pays dentists so little, that only one in six Maryland dentists accepts Medicaid patients. Deamonte’s mother and employees at a local non‐​profit called dozens of dentists to no avail.

Sebelius responded that Deamonte would have died with or without Medicaid, and besides there is no alternative because “I don’t know any dentists who take uninsured people at all.” This from, as KCPT describes her, “the woman once charged with leading the nation’s health care system.”


Also on the panel were Tarren Bragdon of the Foundation for Government Accountability and Daniel Landon of the Missouri Hospital Association.