NEWS

Pence blasts Obamacare in Kentucky visit, pitches GOP repeal plan

Deborah Yetter
@d_yetter

Vice President Mike Pence came to Louisville on Saturday to urge repeal of the Affordable Care Act, even as hundreds of people demonstrated outside in support of the federal law that has expanded health coverage to more than half a million Kentuckians.

Vice President Mike Pence at a rally to promote the repeal and replace of Obamacare in Jeffersontown on Saturday.

"Obamacare has failed the people of Kentucky, Obamacare has failed the people of America and Obamacare must go!" the former Indiana governor declared to an enthusiastic invitation-only audience of more than 100 at a warehouse of the Harshaw Trane heating and cooling business in eastern Jefferson County.

Fellow Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, also an opponent of the federal health law, introduced Pence as his "dear friend"  and said he shares his views.

"Obamacare is a disaster," Bevin said. "It needs to be repealed. It needs to be replaced!"

Kentucky has emerged as a battleground state for the GOP's proposed changes to drastically restructure the law, with President Donald Trump urging Congress to pass the Republican health plan unveiled March 6 in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Many health advocates hail Kentucky as a national success story of Obamacare as implemented by former Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, though critics including Bevin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Louisville Republican, denounce it as a failure.

Pence has emerged as Trump's top salesman for the House changes, having previously appeared recently at similar events in Springdale, Ohio, and Janesville, Wisconsin, to promote the GOP plan in similar, invitation-only meetings with business groups.

Vice President Mike Pence waved at supporters following remarks at the Trane Parts and Distribution Center in Louisville.
Mar. 11, 2017

Beshear, who recently offered a vigorous defense of the health law in providing the Democrats' response to Trump's first speech to Congress, weighed in Saturday in support of the law.

"The fact is that every single legitimate analysis of the plan touted by President Trump, Vice President Pence and the Republican Congress concludes that it will bring an avalanche of pain and suffering," Beshear said at a press conference after Pence spoke. "Millions of people will lose their health coverage."

Anticipating Beshear's comments, both Bevin and Pence sought to discredit him earlier Saturday.

"You're going to see our former governor yet again trying to maintain some semblance of a legacy by telling you it's working," Bevin said. "It's not working."

Pence called Beshear a friend with whom he had worked when they were governors. But "your former governor is wrong about Obamacare," Pence said.

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Meanwhile, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, issued a statement that noted about 100,000 people in Louisville gained health coverage under the law, urging "Congress to slow down and get healthcare right."

And as Bevin and Pence were denouncing Obamacare, supporters unleashed a flurry of tweets citing benefits of the law in Kentucky, saying it has expanded Medicaid coverage to 440,000 people, helped about 81,000 people buy commercial health insurance plans, and brought about $3 billion in additional federal funds to the state.

"Kentucky has a lot to lose," said one tweet from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, a research and policy group.

"You're WRONG, VP," tweeted Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Democrat. "ACA's been a positive for KY's economy. Trumpcare will kill jobs and  limit access to health care."

The Republican plan already is controversial within the GOP, with some arguing it doesn't go far enough to fully repeal the law, among them Kentucky's U. S. Sen. Rand Paul. Meanwhile, a few Senate Republicans have expressed concern about broad changes the plan would make to Medicaid, the government safety-net health plan for the poor, elderly and disabled.

Both Kentucky and Indiana stand to lose significant federal resources from Medicaid under the changes pending in Congress.

The House plan proposes turning Medicaid into a block grant program to states rather than the open-ended entitlement plan under which the federal government pays the majority of the costs of anyone who qualifies. Under the block grants, the federal  government would provide states with a fixed amount of funds to allocate as they choose.

Pence hailed it as a way to offer states greater flexibility. But advocates say it could slash spending on vital services for people, including the poor and disabled with little federal oversight. A particular area of concern is substance-abuse and mental-health treatment, which were expanded in Medicaid services under the health law.

As Kentucky continues to grapple with rising rates of addiction and overdose deaths, the number of substance-abuse treatment services covered by Medicaid has grown by more than 500 percent under the health law, according to the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, a non-profit health policy group.

Substance-abuse coverage is a particular concern in Indiana, which also is experiencing overdose deaths and drew national attention in 2015 for an HIV epidemic linked to needle-sharing by intravenous drug users in the small Southern Indiana town of Austin.

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The GOP's proposed health plan would drop addiction treatment from Medicaid by 2020, The Washington Post reported Friday.

And even as Bevin criticizes the law, his administration on March 7 announced that 81,185 Kentuckians bought commercial health insurance plans for 2017, about the same as the 82,681 Kentuckians who bought plans last year under the law that offers tax subsidies to lower-income buyers. The Republican plan eliminates the tax subsidies for people who buy commercial health plans and replaces them with less-generous tax credits.

The news that about the same number of Kentuckians bought health insurance this year under Obamacare drew praise from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

"It's great news that enrollment in marketplace health plans this year is comparable to last year," said Ben Chandler, the executive director. "The idea is to get more people insured, and this news is evidence that's happening."

Health advocates point to significant gains in Kentucky under the health law.

Access to health care has improved, with more people visiting the doctor and obtaining needed medications, according to the foundation.

The coalition Kentucky Voices for Health, is urging Congress to scrap the proposed changes, citing the high stakes for residents.

“Kentucky has gained more from the Affordable Care Act than any other state, and we have more to lose from its repeal,” said Jason Bailey of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. Bailey called the GOP proposal "a plan to give tax breaks to the wealthy paid for by dramatically reducing the number of people with health coverage."

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at 502-582-4228 or at dyetter@courier-journal.com.

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