LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Gov. Andy Beshear has halted former Gov. Matt Bevin’s Medicaid overhaul.
On Monday afternoon, Beshear signed an executive order that overrides Bevin’s Kentucky HEALTH project, which required some Kentuckians to meet work requirements to gain health coverage through Medicaid.
Beshear’s actions essentially negate Bevin’s attempts to roll back the state’s Medicaid expansion, which was implemented by Beshear’s father, then-Gov. Steve Beshear, as part of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care program commonly referred to as Obamacare.
Medicaid is a health care program for the poor that is administered by the states but paid primarily by the federal government.
Beshear said Bevin’s approach would have cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost federal subsidies, increased the state’s health care expenditures and would have cost some Kentuckians their lives.
“Health care is a basic human right, and every Kentucky family deserves to see a doctor and receive treatment when they are sick,” Beshear said.
Bevin’s administration had made changes to the Medicaid program because of rising health care costs, fiscal challenges at the state level and because he believes that some Kentuckians should work or provide some community service before qualifying for Medicaid, to provide them with an incentive to find work.
However, Beshear and Eric Friedlander, acting secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said that most people on Medicaid already work, and they believe Bevin’s approach actually harmed the economy because people who lack health care and whose conditions do not get treated are less likely to find and keep a job and more likely to suffer severe health complications.
Friedlander said Beshear’s actions will make Kentuckians healthier, which will improve their lives and increase the likelihood of their retaining or finding jobs.
“This is how you get people into jobs,” he said.
Beshear said his action will preserve Medicaid for the nearly 500,000 Kentuckians who would have lost health coverage under Bevin’s plan.
The expansion is paid for primarily through federal dollars, with the state picking up an ever-increasing share. Under the ACA, the federal government paid 100% of the cost of expansion coverage from 2014 to 2016. The federal share dropped to 95% in 2017, 94% last year, 93% this year and will settle at 90% next year and each year thereafter.
The rollout of Bevin’s program was beset by delays and lawsuits, with federal judges repeatedly blocking the former governor's attempts to make changes to the Medicaid program.
Beshear's executive order effectively ends Kentucky's litigation involving the Medicaid waiver.
"We have now asked the courts to dismiss Kentucky from the lawsuit," said Beshear. "The waiver would have cost our state hundreds of millions of dollars, raised costs for those who already have the least and around 100,000 Kentuckians would have lost their coverage."
