James Comer calls for killing Obamacare, kynect

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Comer called on Monday for Congress to repeal Obamacare and said, if elected governor, he would scale back the number of people eligible for Medicaid and shut down the state's health insurance exchange.

During a press conference in Louisville, in which he unveiled the first plank of his platform, Comer, the state's agriculture commissioner, stopped short of saying what, if anything, he would do to help Kentuckians who are able to buy health insurance because of federal government subsides available under Obamacare if the program went away.

"There are costs associated with getting rid of (the state exchange)," he said, noting that as soon as kynect, the state exchange went away, people would have to pay a 3.5 percent surcharge.

"We're just going to have to see what the federal government does with Obamacare," he said, adding that for the people who need federal subsidies, "we're just going to have to hope that we can create an environment in Kentucky where we have competition in Kentucky among the healthcare companies, because companies want to come in here and provide healthcare benefits and Kentuckians have more options."

In coming weeks, Comer said he would roll out plans on higher education, reducing the size of government, the economy and decreasing debt while providing more access to early childhood development programs.

Additionally, Comer said he would push for panels that would screen malpractice suits before they are allowed to go to trial. He said he would hire a Medicaid commissioner or Health and Family Services secretary from the healthcare "provider community."

And he said he would make changes to the state's Medicaid managed care system in an effort to cut costs and insure that providers are paid in a timely fashion.