VIDEO: Students slam Sebelius for using MLK Day to promote Obamacare

Students at George Washington University (GWU) were troubled by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' use of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to promote and push registrations for the Affordable Care Act.

Watch: Students confused and upset at Obamacare push on MLK Day.

“Today, we honor the remarkable life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy of fighting for racial equality, human rights and economic justice,” Sebelius wrote in a press release last Friday.

“Because of the Affordable Care Act, it’s a new day in health care that is bringing new security and opening new doors of opportunity. Across the nation, millions of Americans are signing up for quality, affordable health insurance through the new Health Insurance Marketplace,” Sebelius wrote.

When asked what they thought of the Health and Human Services director’s political advocacy on a day set aside for remembering the great civil rights leader students were troubled.

“I think there might be a little racial undertone to that possibly,” one student said, “maybe a little socioeconomic-stereotype.”

“I find it a little self-serving really, she shouldn't be using a holiday regarding service to promote her own ideologies,” said another student.

While many of the students at GWU were covered under their parents’ plan, Campus Reform was unable to find any who had signed up for Obamacare on their own.

The Affordable Care Act is dependent on many younger people signing up for insurance in order to subsidize older enrollees. However, NerdWallet’s Napala Pratini reports that “55 percent of Americans who enrolled in Obamacare in the first three months were ages 45 to 64 – with people aged 55 and older accounting for one-third of all those signed up. Only 24 percent of the 2.2 million who have signed up are between the ages of 18 and 34.”

NerdWallet also predicts that youth who do not enroll in the Affordable Care Act will have health care costs that are one fifth as high as those that do.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter @CalebBonham