Kentucky ObamaCare lawsuits moving forward

The Kentucky Court of Appeals will hear two cases challenging Gov. Steve Beshear's unilateral implementation of the "Affordable Care Act" in Kentucky.

"Our system of government is on trial here," said David Adams, plaintiff in both cases. "Governor Beshear has created a mess by violating state law to force Kentucky into ObamaCare without required legislative approval. If Kentucky's judicial branch won't stop him in this contemptible law-breaking, we have no law. I don't believe we are that far gone."

The first order of business with the Court of Appeals will be a re-hearing of Beshear's ridiculous claim that citizens of Kentucky don't have a right to complain when he breaks the law.

"The legislature has refused to play along with Beshear in his ObamaCare nonsense by killing his executive orders without a single hearing and defunding ObamaCare in the state budget by veto-proof majorities in both chambers," Adams said. "The people's representatives have spoken loud and clear and now is the time for the rest of us to engage."

2015 GOP gubernatorial race's missing ingredient

Just got an email from the Hal Heiner for Governor campaign touting a 28-22 lead over James Comer. As much as I like Hal and appreciate his work particularly on education, it's pretty hard to miss the real news in the polling he mentions.

Hal isn't winning.

The headline on the campaign email says Heiner has "taken the lead" but the poll shows him either in 2nd or 3rd. If you throw Matt Bevin into the mix, the Hal is running behind "Not sure" and Bevin. If the race is between Heiner and Comer only, Hal trails "Not sure." By a lot, in both cases.

I'm not sure Matt Bevin will get into this race, but I know that if he did the first thing he would do is put up a web site with a page dedicated to explaining his positions on the issues. Hal has the only official campaign in the race but has yet to do that.

When the issues get the attention they deserve, there are several Kentucky candidates must address. Following state law and getting Kentucky out of ObamaCare is a total no-brainer. Dropping out of the federal "War on marijuana" is perhaps not as obvious yet, but it will be. Deregulating healthcare any way we can should be another easy one with quick, positive results -- starting with repealing certificate of need laws and reducing the scope of Department of Insurance regulation of health coverage. Opting out of federal control of public education must be a top priority of our next governor. Ending Kentucky's ridiculous corporate welfare game and seriously addressing public employee pensions are also winning ideas that can't wait for a champion.

We've suffered long enough under popularity contests and mud-slinging determining who runs our government. If you see a candidate or potential candidate ask them to get specific right away.

Joe Sonka: I see insured people!

Left-wing journalist Joe Sonka has a very funny way of advocating for ObamaCare in Kentucky. His latest effort reminded me a lot of the line from the spooky, supernatural "The Sixth Sense" movie from 1999 in which the main character whispered eerily "I see dead people."

Sonka is upset that Alison Grimes took her U.S. Senate campaign to Perry County without mentioning the "Affordable Care Act."

Sonka:

But an examination of enrollment numbers through Kynect, Kentucky’s state insurance exchange made possible by the Affordable Care Act, shows that the uninsured rate dropped more dramatically in Perry County (where Hazard is located) than in any other Kentucky county.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, in 2012 there were 19,773 residents in Perry County with health insurance coverage, and 4,202 residents with no coverage. However, by the signup deadline this April, 5,509 people in Perry County had signed up for insurance through Kynect. Assuming the Beshear administration’s statewide estimate that 75 percent of Kynect enrollees were not previously insured (as stated on their application), this means Perry County’s uninsured rate may have dropped from over 17 percent to less than 1 percent.

We are deep into imaginary friend territory here. No one knows how wildly inaccurate the Census Bureau's guess at rates of coverage by health insurance are, but we can only hope it's not worse than Beshear's ridiculous twin claims that 75% of exchange health insurance enrollees were previously uninsured as were 75% of ObamaCare Medicaid enrollees. Current and former "exchange" employees and contractors reported repeatedly that their computers kicked out entries defining applicants as possessing prior insurance coverage, so it is very safe to assume Beshear simply made up both numbers.

Taking two very questionable data points and concluding from them that the uninsured rate in Perry County "may have dropped from over 17 percent to less than 1 percent," much less that the fantasy should be touted as fact in a U.S. Senate race, may run a thrill up the leg of Obamacrats and Beshear lackeys, but such science fiction writing does nothing to advance real public policy discussion.

University of Kentucky student health plan covers abortion

Kentucky law forbids health insurance companies from covering abortions except in the case of saving the life of the mother, but United Healthcare's student plan at the University of Kentucky covers elective abortions.

At the bottom of page 23 of the plan document under the headline "Benefits for Elective Abortion," it reads: The exclusion will be waived and benefits will be paid for elective abortion as for any other Sickness."

"Elective abortion" is also listed under "Exclusions and Limitations" in the policy, but "elective" is defined in the policy on page 25 as services that "do not meet the health care need for a Sickness or Injury," services deemed experimental or "not recognized and generally accepted medical practices in the United States." In other words, the policy makes no distinction between a legal abortion and an illegal abortion. It covers them all.

I guess the folks at UK figure it is cheaper to pay for abortions than for delivery of a child.

We've dealt with the Beshear administration's lack of honesty on this issue before.

WellCare of Kentucky not paying Medicaid doctors

Sources report Medicaid managed care provider WellCare of Kentucky has stopped reimbursing doctors whose patients present their coverage for payment.

Doctors' office personnel are currently turning away WellCare members and urging them to call Governor Steve Beshear. Kentucky has added over 600,000 people to the Medicaid rolls under ObamaCare.

This failure was not difficult to predict.

"'Counting ObamaCare 'success' one Medicaid recipient at a time is for people who enjoy playing hide-and-seek alone," said David Adams, plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking clarification of the law Beshear violated in signing Kentucky up for the optional ObamaCare Medicaid expansion.

Supreme Court justice shows stronger sign of gubernatorial run

Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott has recused himself from involvement in the Court's two ObamaCare lawsuits, likely signaling a campaign for the the Republican nomination for Governor.

Justice Scott told the Lexington Herald Leader last month he was considering making a run and there is no other readily apparent reason for him to step down from hearing the ObamaCare cases.

The timing of the recusal also points to likely imminent action from the Court on the cases.

"Continuing to allow Gov. Beshear's ObamaCare charade to drag on with him continuing to fail to make implementation legal serves no purpose unless you enjoy watching MSNBC hosts slobber all over him," said David Adams, plaintiff in the two lawsuits challenging legality of ObamaCare implementation in Kentucky.

Beshear puts more lipstick on ObamaCare pig

The Interim Committee on Health and Welfare voted today in favor of Gov. Steve Beshear's third attempt to make ObamaCare legal in Kentucky, but there remains no chance whatsoever that his latest executive order will be ratified by the entire General Assembly. And that is what matters.

"The legal case for ObamaCare in Kentucky gets thinner by the day as illegal state expenditures pile up and nothing can be done to make it fit state law," said David Adams, plaintiff in two state lawsuits seeking clarification of already-pretty-clear state law forbidding Beshear's unilateral acceptance of optional portions of the "Affordable Care Act." "Kentucky's brain dead media would be all over this if the governor breaking the law so egregiously were a Republican or if there were an extramarital sex act involved."

The symbolic vote passed 11-7 with eleven yes votes coming from Democrats and seven no votes from Republicans. Nine committee members missed the meeting, including seven Republicans.

"Follow the Constitution" is GOP ticket in 2014

Republican candidates who want to maximize GOP voter turnout as well as attracting voters registered otherwise would do very well to focus on the rule of law and the ways in which their opponents fall short on that front.

A Tea Party Patriots poll of Republican voters across the country finds nearly all of them believe the most important issue involves a failure of government to follow the rule of law. The best answer from Democrats to complaints about their illegal tactics is to attempt to justify their actions.

Our prisons are full of people who, like these Democratic politicans, demonstrate failure to grasp why flouting constitutional and statutory restrictions on their actions is inherently bad.

Pointing this out repeatedly and keeping the discussion on opponents' problems with the rule of law should be fertile electoral policy any time, but seems to be especially so now.

For federal candidates, questions to ask involve your opponents' support for any number of the president's illegal and unconstitutional actions including asking why the opponent supports or does not support them. State candidates would do very well to look into Gov. Beshear's many illegal actions regarding ObamaCare implementation and question their opponents in a similar manner.