Matt Bevin says he will issue an executive order to mandate changing forms, which may violate state law.
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Bevin met with both Democrat and Republican leadership at the Capitol Friday and said it is his intent for things to proceed well during the transition and that he and the transition team have a lot of “wood to chop” over the next five weeks before his swearing in as the next governor.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis grabbed national headlines in September for her defiant stance – which included a stint in jail – against same-sex marriage. We will do that by executive order. He said during the campaign that he would after he was elected. More than 100,000 people have used kynect to purchase private health insurance plans with the help of federal subsidies. “We will do it right out of the gate”.
Bevin suggested that turning to a federally funded 1115 waver was a way of paying for an alternative program that could insure Kentuckians on Kynect who would not meet income requirements for the federal exchange.
“It adds no value”, he said. “We are going to do right by the people of the commonwealth”.
The same judge had ruled in favor of four gay couples who sued Davis last summer for refusing to grant them marriage licenses. He said he plans to hire a general counsel and a chief of staff as early as next week.
But the decommissioning process will be complicated and costly – state officials have estimated shutting down kynect could cost upwards of $20 million, money the state would have to repay the federal government, which financed the startup. A few people who had previously qualified for health insurance under Medicaid would no longer be eligible.
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In his first press conference since being elected, Bevin promised one of his first acts will be to make the changes Kim Davis has requested, and he will bypass the state legislature, using an executive order to make the change. Bevin said he expects to create a similar plan for Kentucky.
