Bevin made the surprise announcements at a Friday morning press conference, calling for a “fresh start” at the university after a series of controversies and scandals led to a board bitterly divided over whether Ramsey should remain president.
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Bevin’s administration has instituted a 30-day comment period on the official plan, which is posted on the state’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services website. Bevin wants to submit the plan to the federal government by August 1 and said he hopes to have a decision by September 30. Otherwise, it’s said nearly half a million Kentuckians would lose coverage.
And, he said, those who advocate on behalf of Medicaid patients made clear they prefer small premiums over increased co-pays. It would range between $1 and $15.
The state is also seeking to encourage people to transition off of Medicaid and onto private insurance coverage. And if the federal government refuses to accept these draconian changes, he threatened to kick hundreds of thousands of working Kentuckians off of health care.
“It’s too bad that these people don’t bother to research who they’re so blindly supporting – a corporation that kills almost 900 preborn children each day in the United States, and one that thinks it’s above the law in Kentucky”, she added. It establishes a “My Rewards Account” in which clients can earn credits they can use to purchase added benefits including dental and vision through volunteer work or taking financial literacy classes.
Over five years, the state projects the number of people enrolled in Medicaid would be less than the number of those enrolled without the proposed new program. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley fired the school’s entire board and forced the dismissal of its president in an effort to clear the school of millions in debt and accreditation probation – after lawmakers were heavily criticized by stakeholders for threatening to close the school for two years.
But during his successful campaign for governor, Bevin repeatedly said the program is unsustainable, promising to seek a federal waiver to redesign it so clients will take more personal responsibility and “have skin in the game”.
Bevin Communications Director Jessica Ditto responded in a statement that called Beshear’s action “purely political in nature”. The expanded program helped reduce Kentucky’s uninsured population form 20 percent to 7.5 percent.
The idea, Bevin says, is to make the state healthier, and get recipients more involved their healthcare. Bevin campaigned on reversing the state’s Medicaid expansion policy, but he then reversed course and said he would maintain Medicaid but make changes to Kynect, the state’s health insurance marketplace that was widely praised throughout the Affordable Care Act rollout.
Countering that allegation, Beshear said his lawsuit “is not about drama, it’s not Beshear vs. Bevin, it’s not about any trustee, and it’s not about any president of any university… this is exclusively about the law and my duty to enforce that law”. Still, drug overdose deaths rose 16 percent in the first year the law was implemented. But later, in response to a reporter’s question, Bevin said, “My focus is on the academic side”.
Bevin has wielded his executive powers to reorganize other boards, including the Kentucky Horse Park Commission, the Kentucky Racing Commission and the Workers Compensation Nominating Commission.
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“If people don’t like it, the answer is not, ‘Let’s ignore the statute.’ You can change the statute”, he said.
