Democrats heaped praise on Kentucky under the leadership of Democratic governor Steve Beshear for setting up an Obamacare exchange and greatly expanding Medicaid coverage for able-bodied people.
The Trump administration has made it easier for states like Kentucky who have expanded Medicaid to force able-bodied people to work for their benefits and force them to pay s paltry sum for their coverage. Now liberals are losing their minds over the changes. The new plan still exempts pregnant women and mothers who look after their children, the disabled and the infirm.
This only affect able-bodied people. And the premiums range from only one dollar up to fifteen dollars a month, which is cheap at half the cost.
Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, said federal approval of their waiver program — the first of its kind — will be “transformational” for his state, shoring up benefits for pregnant women and the truly infirm while prodding healthy people to lift themselves out of poverty.
“They are not stupid people. These are not incapable people,” Mr. Bevin said.
The project, known as Kentucky HEALTH, will require many adults on Medicaid to perform 20 hours of work, job training or community engagement per week and imposes monthly, income-based premiums of $1 to $15 per month
Now, liberals are crying that forcing people to work for their benefits is cruel and unusual punishment that could cause people to drop their coverage. The funny thing is they have no problem with forcing taxpaying workers to foot the bill for the people who are able to work but don’t. So they do approve of work for medicaid just as long as it’s not the ones on Medicaid paying.
Rep. John Yarmuth, Kentucky Democrat, said:
“Make no mistake: people will die because of this.”
So much for the old saying that hard work never killed anyone. Is Yarmuth really that stupid or does he just think his constituents are? They work so they can have health insurance why can’t the others do it, too?
Nine other states have applied for waivers as well. They are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin.
Kentucky expects to shrink it’s enrollment in Medicaid by 97,000 people due to them getting jobs or refusing to work for their benefits.
I suspect the real reason liberals are opposed to a work requirement is that they are afraid that working will tire them out. The would prefer they do no work so that every two years they will be well rested and able to go to the polls and vote for Democrats.