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Posted on 05/09/2013 7:04:10 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
Calling it the single “most important decision in our lifetime” to improve Kentuckians’ health, Gov. Steve Beshear officially announced Thursday that he agreed to expand Medicaid 308,000 more Kentuckians.
The Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — allows states to expand Medicaid to cover those who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate, which is about $31,000 for a family of four.
With Beshear’s announcement, Kentucky will be the 22nd state to agree to the expansion, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2014.
The move to cover more low-income Kentuckians could nearly cut in half the number of uninsured Kentuckians, currently around 640,000. The other half who don’t qualify for additional help through Medicaid will soon be able to be matched up with private healthcare coverage through the health-benefit exchange, Beshear said. That’s also an outgrowth of the Affordable Care Act.
Beshear said the expansion is expected to create 17,000 new jobs and have a $15.6 billion economic impact to the state.
Watch the video below to see how much the state will pay to expand the system which provides health care coverage to the uninsured.
Currently, Kentucky ranks among the lowest in the nation with a 44th ranking in overall healthcare, according to the United Health Foundation . The commonwealth is 50th in smoking, 40th in obesity, 41st in diabetes, 50th in cancer deaths, 49th in heart disease, 43rd in high cholesterol, 44th in annual dental visits and 48th in heart attacks.
The administration hired outside studies conducted by the University of Louisville and Price Waterhouse Coopers accounting firm to provide statistics and provide a cost estimate to the program expansion.
Kelsey Cooper, the communications director for the Republican Party of Kentucky, attended the announcement at the State Reception Room in the Capitol and said afterwards Beshear still had some answering to do.
“It’s great that he wants to expand Medicaid and make healthcare more affordable for everyone, but he still has to answer to the fact that Obamacare is bad for small businesses, is bad for Kentuckians, and it’s bad for employers,” Cooper said. “What is he going to say to all of the Kentuckians that can’t afford to have that many employees anymore, because the Obamacare regulations? I think the state Democrats are going to have to answer now to the fact they support Obamacare.”
Beshear did address whom he called the “naysayers” during his 15-minute prepared remarks, saying “get over it” when it comes to the criticism of the Affordable Care Act.
“They express vague and broad anxieties about costs – fears the facts refute, and they fall back on partisan national politics. If Kentucky expands Medicaid they ask won’t Kentucky be supporting be supporting Obamacare, well to them I say, get over it,” Beshear said.
You know you’re in trouble when a politician pimps “healthcare” to “help the economy”. Healthcare shouldn’t be about helping the economy.
What is wrong with the people in Kentucky? I always thought they were smarter than this.
Beshear could care less, he has a year and a half left in office and he’s gone.
Correction: two and a half years. December 2015.
Congratulations to Kentucky for electing this scumbag Beshear.
.....until the Federal Government changes the rules and then the State of Kentucky will take it in the shorts for expenses that will bankrupt the state.
Beshear says Medicaid expansion will make Kentuckians healthier and help the economy
Wonder what he’s been smoking.
At those economic impact and jobs numbers, over the next thousand years, there could be over a quadrillion new dollars and nearly a billion new workers in Kentucky alone.
I hated him in Deep Space Nine.
This is what we get for having re-nominated Ernie Fletcher...”on principle” of course.
Then having no big name step forward 4 years later and we got the ever polarizing David Williams as the nominee, which made the race entirely about personality vs. issues.
Fletcher discovered that Republican Governors can’t get away with doing the same things that Democrat Governors take for granted. Then again, if KY had a GOP Attorney General that behaved like a world-class thug as Dumpy Stumbo was, one who succeeded in his Ahabesque coup d’etat, lifelong career Democrat hacks like Beshear would never get near the Governorship.
Almost as bad as the Peppy Martin fiasco in ‘99. One wonders if the GOP will screw it up again with the open seat in ‘15. First thing is to finally take the majority in the House next year and kick the thug Stumpy to the curb. KY Dems power is built on a quicksand of patronage & gerrymandering and should fall like a house of cards once the GOP gets full control of the leg. Same thing happened here across the line in TN. Dems died in just a few cycles after losing the legislature.
Think Jefferson County & Louisville. Overrun with lefties. Louisville Courier is a pile of bird cage liner.
Every time Beshear opens his mouth I want to hurl.
Yes, hence why they are drawing so many of the new districts to include as many incumbent Republicans against each other as possible, including one with 3 in the same district. They can't draw them anymore geographically, save the urban areas, where a Democrat is guaranteed to win, so they try to get rid of the incumbents this way instead - in particular they are targeting the newer, younger GOP members.
Oh...and Peppy Martin apparently switched parties back in 2007 to become a Democrat.
As long ago as 1969, the GOP elected a House Speaker (the first in the South since the 1890s). When the Dems gained a few seats in 1971, they got control of redistricting and spent the next several decades trying to hold the GOP to at or around 1/3rd of the membership. The GOP would usually edge up to or over 40% of the body over the next decade before getting screwed again.
Around 1994, GOP candidates for the TN House started receiving more votes than their Dem counterparts, despite being outnumbered by a roughly 60-40% majority. Republican members would routinely win by huge margins in their carefully-drawn seats to corral GOP voters, while Dems (in contested seats) would tend to win by uninspiring %’s. By 2002, the RINO Governor Sundquist was enraged at many GOP legislators for failing to enact his (illegal) income tax.
What did he do ? He submitted a redistricting plan that was so audacious (putting about a dozen members of his own party, those most opposed to his income tax, into half as many seats) that even the Democrats thought it was way to punitive (!) and would result in civil war within the legislature. The Dem plan, ironically, only ended up putting 2 Republicans together, which was passed (essentially status quo lines). Under those same lines, by 2008, the GOP got a (on paper) majority and in 2010, jumped to 64%. Today we’re at 70%.
I expect once the KY GOP busts the gerrymander, they’ll reach commanding majorities in short order. Just 4 short years ago, the TN GOP was worried if they’d actually gain working control of the House. Now the Democrats worry that they’ll ever gain enough seats to deny the GOP a super-majority. Barring a GOP split (Tea Party vs. Establishment), the Dems won’t be challenging them for majority status again for decades.
Not to mention her primary opponent in ‘99, also named David Williams, was a Democrat who almost pulled off the stunt of winning the GOP nomination and having his wife as his Lt Gov running mate. That the GOP allowed either of those two near the ballot is appalling, nevermind its failure to enrage the voters after Paul Patton audaciously stole the ‘95 race. Begs the question... where was the leadership ?
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