For whatever reason, Kentuckians, who have no use for President Obama, decided to elect a Democrat as their governor in 2007 and then reelected him in 2011. This is the reason that Kentucky is the
only state in the South that it both expanding Medicaid and opening and operating its own health insurance exchange.
Governor Steve Beshear wants his political opponents to “Get over it.” After noting that Kentucky ranks near the bottom in nearly every health index, he makes the following observations:
The Affordable Care Act will address these weaknesses.
Some 308,000 of Kentucky’s uninsured — mostly the working poor — will be covered when we increase Medicaid eligibility guidelines to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Studies Institute at the University of Louisville concluded that expanding Medicaid would inject $15.6 billion into Kentucky’s economy over the next eight years, create almost 17,000 new jobs, have an $802.4 million positive budget impact (by transferring certain expenditures from the state to the federal government, among other things), protect hospitals from cuts in indigent care funding and shield businesses from up to $48 million in annual penalties.
In short, we couldn’t afford not to do it.
The other 332,000 uninsured Kentuckians will be able to access affordable coverage — most with a discount — through the Health Benefit Exchange, the online insurance marketplace we named Kynect: Kentucky’s Healthcare Connection.
Regardless of what Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul think they are doing in Washington DC, Kentucky is moving forward. It’s population may not have the country’s highest educational attainment, but they are smart enough to figure out that ObamaCare is improving their lives and helping their state’s economy.
Someday soon, the freak show in Congress will end. But ObamaCare is forever.
While agreeing with the overall gist of what you’re saying, I have to say that the swipe at Kentucky’s educational attainment is a little gratuitous. It’s also not so clear cut:
I say this because I’d love to share this piece with my friends Pau and Caliborne, both very progressive Kentuckians, but I hesitate because of that last line.
Booman Tribune ~ Kentucky is Moving Forward
You’re saying that some statistics give Kentucky at best a roughly average rating. That doesn’t invalidate Booman’s statement. Part of being smart is not getting too defensive or sensitive about statistics that don’t tell you what you would like to hear. Being smart is about recognizing reality and doing something about it where action is warranted. Kentucky seems to be doing precisely that with regard to health care. Is it too much to hope they will also take action to improve some of their education stats? I doubt very progressive Kentuckians would be too offended at the suggestion that their education system also needs some work.
It’s a misprint, anyway. The source says that their “staggering 40% adult literacy rate is beginning to come down,” which I think is the opposite of what they mean. In any case, more than 4% of Kentucky adults can read.
Good catch on the misprint. But I think you misread the underlying article a bit. I’m copying/pasting here:
“The state’s staggeringly high adult illiteracy rate–about 40 percent–has begun to decline. A new, stronger Council on Postsecondary Education has begun to impose system-wide policies on what has been a series of campus fiefdoms, sometimes feuding with each other.”
It looks to me like that article is 14 years old. Given the reform oriented language in it, hopefully this statistic has changed quite a bit since then.
Still, it seems that there isn’t much for bragging rights in Kentucky on education (and I admire many things about the state).
Their schools are actually better than you might assume. They rolled out a statewide in-school social service program over the last few years which is helping quite a bit, for example. Helps kids who need clothes, breakfast, referrals to other govt programs, rides home, etc. Neat program.
BTW, I’ve seen literacy statistics claiming that illiteracy was more like the 13-19% range – and those were also old stats from 2003.
I suspended my assumptions because I just don’t know. And a lot can happen in 10-13 years if reform is carefully considered.
Technically, Philly is worse than KY: our adult illiteracy rate is 52.3%.
you are comparing a city to a state.
Kentucky has Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell as Senators.
That makes them the stupidest people on earth.
/
Yeah, but some states (like Arkansas) some have adopted models for using medicaid funds to help the targeted population via other channels – usually the insurance market. I have not seen the analysis on that but at face value it seems to be mostly a device for Repub lawmakers in those states to get those funds, apply them to the target population, but disguise it to prevent people from associating it with Obamacare or prevent idiots from freaking out about “expansion of government”.
Isn’t Pennsylvania going a similar route?
There seem to be a number of ways of moving forward
Does anyone have a recent update on the tally of which states are going which route? What their current legislative status is regarding options? My source right now is this:
http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/Resources/Primers/MedicaidMap
I’ve also got to believe that some day Maine and Wisconsin voters will wake the hell up and have the clout to reverse the actions of the current governors.
Isn’t Kentucky one of those states that is carefully not referring to Obamacare?
My guess is that even people like Kentucky-Care they will still loathe Obama Care.
Kentucky has some deeply blue pockets, including one of the most democratic counties in the country:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/solid-south-democratic-party-kentucky_n_3151539.html
I work with a ky govt customer in my job, and have been pleasantly suprised at how forward thinking and progressive some aspects of that state are. They just lack enough industry to generate tax dollars and jobs. Hopefully obamacare will help to change that and make them more like their neighbors to the north economically.
Kentucky is a very weird state (Commonwealth) – this is the state that couldn’t make up its mind on the Civil War, a state that is simultaneously Southern and Mid-Western, a state where you can easily find grits but sweet tea is hit-and-miss. It generally keeps two Republican Senators but has had a total of two Republican governors (one term each) in the last 65 years. There are highly educated parts of the state (and parts of certain cities) and then there are parts where the idea of running water is a novelty and they’re not so sure about the conclusion of the War Of Northern Aggression. There are parts of Louisville that you would have trouble differentiating from coastal gay-friendly enclaves and you will also find the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary here. This is probably the definition of an “altered state” even though natives would insist on it being referred to as an Altered Commonwealth.
Any sweeping generality about the Commonwealth of Kentucky is bound to be fraught with faults.
Kinda…sorta…you know.
Meanwhile across the Ohio to the north, the weasel Pence continues to cry out, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling! All you sick poor people line up at the emergency room!”