Power

New GOP Kentucky Governor Wants to Undo the State’s Health-Care Gains

Bevin's victory leaves in doubt the future of the program that provides health care to more than 400,000 low-income residents.

Bevin's victory leaves in doubt the future of the program that provides health care to more than 400,000 low-income residents. WLKY News Louisville / YouTube

Newly elected Kentucky governor, Republican Matt Bevin, may be poised to eliminate health care for thousands of the state’s low-income residents after he defeated Attorney General Jack Conway on Tuesday.  

The gubernatorial campaign focused heavily on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the state’s expansion of Medicaid. Bevin promised to dramatically scale back the state’s kynect program, which expanded health-care access. Bevin’s victory leaves in doubt the future of the program that provides health care to more than 400,000 low-income residents.

“I’m proud of the fact that this is a great night for Republicans in Kentucky and, more importantly, a great night for conservatives in Kentucky,” Bevin said in front of a crowd of supporters, reported the New York Times. Bevin added, “We have a lot of work to do.”

Bevin won decisively, defeating Conway, 52.5 percent to 43.8 percent, after narrowly winning the Republican primary in May by 83 votes.

The victory comes less than two years after Bevin waged an unsuccessful primary campaign against U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

Bevin’s wealth and campaign style earned him comparisons to Republican presidential candidate billionaire Donald Trump. However, the policies he has promised to implement as governor are comparable to Republican governors such Kansas’ Sam Brownback and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who have focused efforts on eliminating health-care access to low-income families.

The central issue of the campaign was the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA through the kynect program, which Bevin called “a disaster.”

The program has been widely praised as a success, and it has been credited with reducing the uninsured rate in the state from 20.4 percent in 2013 to 11.9 percent in mid-year 2014. Kentucky’s 8.5 percent drop in the uninsured rate over the past two years is more than any other state with the exception of Arkansas.

Bevin said that if elected he would repeal Gov. Steve Beshear’s executive order expanding Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. “Absolutely,” Bevin said. “No question about it. I would reverse that immediately.”

Bevin’s proposed plan is to transition residents on Medicaid through kynect to the federal health insurance exchange by 2017, when the federal subsidies are reduced.

The federal government pays 100 percent of the cost of expanding Medicaid in the state, and beginning in 2017, federal funding will decrease to 90 percent. Kentucky’s expansion of Medicaid created a $15.6 billion economic impact as well as nearly 17,000 new jobs across the state, according an analysis by the state health department.

Bevin has expressed an ideological opposition to Medicaid expansion. During a debate in May, Bevin said that there are too many “able bodied, working age people” who are “taking advantage” of the government benefits.

“We’ve got to stop subsidizing poor decisions,” Bevin said, reported the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Stop subsidizing those who are able to take advantage of a situation and of a system that we literally cannot afford to continue.”

The elimination of the kynect program is just one of an assortment of conservative policies Bevin will seek to impose as governor. He has also pushed implementation of so-called right-to-work laws designed to crush labor unions, and has promised to “lead the charge” decreasing taxes and regulations on businesses.

Bevin, who became Kentucky’s first Republican governor since 2003 and just the second Republican to hold the office since 1971, may soon have the GOP majorities he needs in the state legislature to implement his agenda.

The Republican gains in Kentucky are just the latest in two decades worth of defeats for Democrats throughout the South, and leaves only Virginia with a Democrat in the governor’s mansion.

Kentucky is the only Southern state in which Republicans and Democrats each control one chamber of the state legislature. Republicans hold a massive 27-11 majority in the state senate, while Democrats maintain a slim 54-46 majority in the state house.

However, the control of the state house may now be in doubt.

“This changes the dynamics,” state Senate President Robert Stivers told the New York Times. “Instead of having one leg of the stool, we now have two legs of the stool—and the third leg is very weak.”