Bevin’s Medicaid plan still needs work

From the Herald-Leader:

Bevin’s plan to move Kentuckians onto employer-provided health insurance is mostly unrealistic because low-wage workers frequently change jobs and their employers often don’t offer insurance. Bevin’s savings would come from covering almost 86,000 fewer people than would otherwise be eligible and by excluding benefits like dental and vision. Taxpayers would pay more per person in the Medicaid expansion for less health care, presumably to pay for new bureaucracy.

Kentucky has paid nothing for the Medicaid expansion but must shoulder a fraction of the cost next year, capping out at 10 percent in 2021. Kentucky pays 30 percent of traditional Medicaid; the federal government pays the rest. Taxpayers and their representatives in Congress see the value of helping a poor state improve its residents’ health. Kentucky’s elected leaders should too. The wider the coverage the more leverage the state has to improve health outcomes and control costs through evidence-based practices.

If Bevin ends the Medicaid expansion and unpaid hospital bills rise and constituents ask lawmakers why they lost their medical care, Kentuckians will know the governor, not someone in Washington, is responsible.

Bevin litigates while U of L drifts

From the Herald-Leader:

The (Bevin) administration has rebuffed entreaties from Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd to reach a compromise with Attorney General Andy Beshear resolving uncertainty over the U of L board’s makeup. Bevin last week even urged his U of L appointees to convene in defiance of a court order. “They’ve got work to do, absolutely. Their job is to govern, and that is exactly what I think they should do,” Bevin told WHAS radio.

It’s been almost a month since Shepherd temporarily blocked Bevin’s order abolishing and replacing that board, ruling that the governor’s unprecedented action was at odds with several state laws, the terms of U of L’s accreditation and the constitutional separation of powers.

Bevin’s disregard for separation of powers and due process were also noted when Shepherd reinstated Kentucky Retirement Systems board member Thomas Elliott on Monday. Shepherd took Bevin to task for using “lawless, strong-arm tactics” in threatening — through staff members accompanied by uniformed state police officers — to arrest Elliott if he participated in a board meeting.