Sen. Baldwin: Healthcare is a right

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) called on governors to expand their Medicaid programs Thursday, declaring that healthcare is a "right guaranteed to all, not a privilege for the few."

The freshman member, who replaced former Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), decried "lies about death panels" and "ads falsely accusing the execution of a government takeover of healthcare" at an annual conference held by Families USA, a group that supports healthcare reform.

"The Affordable Care Act saw its obituary written several times over," she said. "We kept pushing forward. We knew this might be our generation's last chance to achieve what had eluded so many generations before." 

The Obama administration is ramping up its implementation of the healthcare law to prepare for a series of deadlines in 2014, including enforcement of the individual mandate and the launch of the law's insurance exchanges.

Governors are also choosing whether to expand Medicaid eligibility in their states, primarily using federal dollars.

Baldwin called on liberal activists to pressure state officials to accept the expansion, which would grant Medicaid eligibility to individuals with incomes of up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line. 

"We've all heard conservatives talk about entitlement programs, as if the word 'entitlement' is some sort of slur. ... But we should feel entitled to healthcare," she said.