Kentucky ObamaCare still has us upside down

One interesting point from Kentucky's obviously bogus ObamaCare statistics is that if 25% of new enrollees into expanded Medicaid in the state dropped or were dropped from private insurance and 25% of new enrollees in the ObamaCare health insurance dropped or were dropped from private health insurance, then by their own numbers we have 40,000 more uninsured Kentuckians that we did before ObamaCare.

Gov. Steve Beshear reports 257,477 new Medicaid enrollees, with 193,107 of them not having prior coverage. Beshear also reports 64,455 new ObamaCare health insurance purchasers, with 48,431 of them not having prior coverage. That's a total of 241,448 Kentuckians gaining some kind of new coverage. And as the Kentucky Department of Insurance reported back in November, 280,000 Kentuckians lost coverage because of ObamaCare.

The truth is very likely far worse as these numbers do not account for cancelled policies or bogus Medicaid applications, of which there have been a bunch.

Will Beshear sign Senate's defund language and then ignore it?

I talked with Perry Bacon of MSNBC this afternoon about the Kentucky ObamaCare fiasco. He has been talking to Gov. Beshear and House and Senate leaders about the budget and particularly the ObamaCare element of it. He seems to think Democrats will pass and Beshear will sign Senate Republicans' defunding language and then proceed as if its prohibitions against spending state funds on ObamaCare do not exist.

Kentucky is already spending General Fund dollars on administrative costs directly related to the Medicaid expansion. The federal ObamaCare law requires state funds to finance all ObamaCare exchange costs starting January 1, 2015. And when HB 505 dies on April 15, so will any possibility of legislative approval of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

This Kentucky ObamaCare fraud needs an audit

Kentucky's Obamacrats report that 75% of sign-ups for ObamaCare health plans were previously uninsured and 75% of sign-ups for expanded ObamaCare Medicaid were previously uninsured and no mainstream media reporter anywhere seems to see anything odd about that at all.

Seriously. Seventy five percent for both? Not seventy three for one and sixty eight for the other? Seventy five percent is supposed to the be the real number for both. There is no way. These statistics are screaming for an audit.

Even if you try to accept these numbers at face value, you can't. Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange employees who will talk report that attempting to enter information about an applicant's coverage status routinely results in an error message on their system. And even if only twenty five percent of new Medicaid recipients dropped private health insurance to go on Medicaid, that's one-fourth of Kentucky's Medicaid expansion costs going to cover people who were previously taking care of themselves. How would you like it if out of every four houses on your street, the government came in and made one of them a Section 8 house?

These Kentucky Obamacrats act like the old Soviet economic planners declaring victory on the latest Five Year Plan as their economy crumbled. If we had a real media left, these damnable statistics wouldn't last sixty seconds.

Beshear in a box on ObamaCare

The Frankfort media is missing the Kentucky ObamaCare defunding story simply because Gov. Beshear is telling them he won't need General Fund dollars in the next biennium to fund the "Affordable Care Act." This is inexcusable, because the federal law requires states opting in to a state-run exchange and Medicaid expansion spend state funds to do so.

Federal funds for the ObamaCare exchange run out completely on December 31, 2014. The temporary 100% federal match on Medicaid expansion only applies to medical expenses of newly eligible Medicaid recipients under the expansion. That means all exchange expenses starting in 2015 and all Medicaid administrative costs associated with the expansion and all medical expenses of previously eligible Medicaid recipients forced into the program by the coverage mandate come from the General Fund already and continue in perpetuity.

Gov. Beshear set this mess up himself, which Kentucky law does not allow him to do. The following language in the Senate's budget (HB 235) moves to strike his actions down:

Subsequent to these Executive Branch actions, no executive order related to the ACA has been codified by the General Assembly, nor has any administrative regulation related to the ACA been approved by a vote of the majority of the members of a legislative committee. Providing that the Governor continues unilateral implementation and operation of the ACA in the Commonwealth, the General Assembly shall limit the ACA's impact on the 2014-2016 State/Executive Branch Budget and future biennial budgets so as not to bind future General Assemblies. Therefore, no provision within this Act shall be deemed, adjudged, or constructed as being a recognition, finding, or admission of the General Assembly's approval of the operation of the ACA in Kentucky.

This language is important because it emphasizes Beshear's attempt to force us into ObamaCare was done without legislative approval. It is not critical this language stays in the final budget because the law is already clear on how Beshear must get legislative approval, but House Democrats won't want to argue to remove it nor can Beshear complain without admitting that he didn't get and doesn't have legislative approval, which he must have. Kentucky is not a dictatorship, but a constitutional republic.

Beshear's dishonesty also presents serious problems for him when the Senate gets more specific in defunding ObamaCare. See the following passage:

The Governor is expressly prohibited from expending any General Fund resources on any expenditure directly or indirectly associated with the Health Benefit Exchange.

Again, he has said he doesn't need any General Fund dollars, so this is no problem, right? Beshear's quandary is that he either admits to lying now in order to demand funding he needs  in nine months or just gets caught later and hopes no one notices. It's already too late for both.

And then there is the Medicaid expansion.

As the only body in the Commonwealth with the constitutional power to make appropriations, the General Assembly recognizes that federal funding for the expansion of Kentucky's Medicaid Program is not recurring in nature; therefore, the intent of the General Assembly is that funds received from the Affordable Care Act, or its successor, shall not be used to permanently expand existing programs, permanently create new programs, or in any way increase the requirements to be placed on the General Fund or Road Fund above the adjusted appropriation level as of June 30, 2014.

The key here is prohibiting expenditures "above the adjusted appropriations level as of June 30, 2014." Again, Beshear must either admit he needs a lot more money quickly after saying he needs none or just wait and hope no one notices him violating Section 230 of the Kentucky Constitution by spending unappropriated funds.

House Democrats will get another chance to weigh in on ObamaCare, but they can't save Beshear. They can only expose him.

Stay on them now

The Kentucky state Senate just defunded ObamaCare.

Kentucky ObamaCare statewide meltdown

People who signed up for ObamaCare across Kentucky are finding cancellation notices in their mailboxes, and customer service personnel appear to not have been given a heads up about it.

"I've been called every name in the book today," said one "kynector," who asked not to be named.

Kentucky's ObamaCare program needs legislative approval and funding, but is not at all likely to get either.

Kentucky to get defunding ObamaCare right

Expect Kentucky's Senate budget committee to act as soon as today to strip funding of ObamaCare out of the state budget.

"Congressional Republicans should take notes from what Kentucky's state Senate is about to do," said Tea Party activist David Adams. "Beshear and Obama have skated by for too long and by defunding the ObamaCare exchange and Medicaid expansion and sticking to it, we start to turn the tide right here in the Bluegrass State."

The Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee meets today at 2pm in Frankfort.

ObamaCare "B.S." piled higher in Frankfort

Lexington Herald Leader political reporter Jack Brammer, a guest on KET's Comment on Kentucky tonight, fielded a question about the possibility of a budget standoff over ObamaCare funding. He answered that Senate President Robert Stivers said all the funds were federal funds, as if to suggest there would be no struggle.

The biggest problem with this is anyone with a passing awareness of the Affordable Care Act knows the point of getting states to do their own exchanges is that as of January 1, 2015 those states have full responsibility for paying for their own exchange. Additionally, state funds going into the Medicaid expansion are immediate and immense, despite Gov. Steve Beshear's often-repeated false claims to the contrary.

So I called the reporter for clarification. Half an hour after the show, he said Stivers said "the administration" told him all the money is coming from the federal government. That's different -- and a little better. But while I know the Beshear administration has told a lot of lies about ObamaCare, this is just way too absurd. 

It's crazy that a Frankfort reporter either doesn't know this basic fact about ObamaCare or simply passed it along on television for some strange reason. If Stivers was just being sly with Brammer attempting to keep the issue out of the paper -- the Herald Leader wouldn't publish an honest article about ObamaCare if Benjamin Franklin himself wrote it with his own quill pen -- that would make sense. But if Stivers plans to betray House Republicans in addition to Kentucky taxpayers across the board who see ObamaCare not working, he is not as smart as I think he is.

Senate Republicans have very solid reasons to defund ObamaCare and no good ones to give a shred of cover to Beshear in his malfeasance. It's possible the Senate will hold debate and a floor vote on budget and the ObamaCare funding on Monday. At this point, I really hope so.

How much is the Medicaid expansion costing you?

Kentucky and New York are the only two states even asking ObamaCare enrollees if they had previous health insurance and you haven't heard a peep out of Frankfort about how many uninsured people are gaining previously nonexistent coverage through ObamaCare.

Wonder why?

Governor Beshear's attorney practically had a stroke in Franklin Circuit Court last year when I referenced statistical evidence in prior Medicaid expansions showing most of the new sign-ups dropped private coverage in order to go on the dole. His boss would surely do something to show Kentucky breaking that trend if he could.

Politics of ObamaCare turning KY deep red

Kentucky is a red state with an asterisk because it elects most of its state officials from the Democratic party despite electing nearly all federal Republicans. ObamaCare is about to change that.

After Kentucky Senate Republicans defund the ObamaCare exchange and Medicaid expansion next week, Democratic denial of failed federal health reform will get a brief test and die a swift death. House Democrats have already shown they know they are cooked on this. If leadership tries to push that funding back in, hiding the effort will not be possible.

Several vulnerable House Democrats have already gone on the record in support of ObamaCare, enough to turn the House over to a new Republican majority in 2015. That switch makes the likelihood of a Republican Governor in 2016 go way up, or at least a Republican Attorney General to prevent another round of ObamaCare illegality such as that perpetrated by Beshear.

In any event, anyone who wants to run for either of those two main state offices as a Democrat will have an interesting tightrope act to carry out. Democratic primary voters will want to hear candidates talk about forcing us back into ObamaCare or something like it, and general election voters will be looking for a clear expression of the opposite message.

The only way all this doesn't play out to the advantage of Republicans who want right to work legislation, repeal of prevailing wage mandates, pro-life laws and lower taxes, less debt and eliminated wasteful spending is if Republican senators cave in next week and fail to defund ObamaCare. If you haven't called your state senator, please do.

Media whiplash on KY ObamaCare will be fun

The Washington Post has another story up today complaining about how hard it is to measure "success" of Obama's health reform. In it, the paper shows again how dishonest media coverage limits public understanding of what has happened up to now and what will happen next.
From Post columnist Chris Cillizza:

"Kentucky has been getting national attention as a place that was trying to make Affordable Care Act work for awhile. The state's governor, Steve Beshear, is a Democrat, and mostly responsible for Kentucky's adoption of a state-based exchange and the Medicaid expansion, made optional by the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act in June 2012. Republican lawmakers in the state were not pleased with either move, and now seek to limit the executive power a Kentucky governor can wield." 

The biggest problem with the whole mess from Kentucky's perspective is that Beshear wasn't "mostly responsible" for Kentucky's role in ObamaCare, he is solely responsible for it. Unless you count the temporary assist he got from a Franklin Circuit Court judge, Beshear's problem is that he tried to speak for Kentucky in a way our Constitution and statutes do not allow him to speak for Kentucky. And while it is mildly interesting that Senate Republicans filed a bill to "seek to limit the executive power, " which is going nowhere, real story is that deciding to defund the whole operation is now in their hands alone.

House Democrats have already failed to present a united front for ObamaCare or Beshear's illegal and unconstitutional approaches to it. When the Senate pulls out ObamaCare funding and sends the budget back to Democrats next week, House Democrats will be forced to stand up for convictions they have already shown they don't have.

And then Kentucky will be the center of attention on ObamaCare, pointing in a much better direction.

KY ObamaCare defunding fight starts next week

A member of Senate Republican leadership who asked to remain nameless promised today that the effort to defund Gov. Steve Beshear's ObamaCare will come to a head on the Senate floor next week.

Only 25 House Democrats voted against defunding both the ObamaCare exchange and the Medicaid expansion last week and far less enthusiasm for the federal health reform debacle is expected next week in the Senate.

"Cheerleaders for ObamaCare have been claiming for a year that Kentucky is leading the way in implementing this scam, but I expect that next week we will show that we will lead the way in pulling back from the abyss," said Tea Party activist David Adams.

"Senate Republicans have no reason to stab House Republicans in the back on ObamaCare, so I expect their support for sanity next week will effectively silence Beshear on the matter," Adams said.

Replace ObamaCare with THIS

The problem with healthcare in America for several decades has been too much government and eliminating that is the key to fixing healthcare in America.

Insurance companies love barriers to entry for new insurance insurance companies because it limits competition. This must be the first thing to go. The federal government has constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause to limit insurers' ability to serve customers across state lines and ObamaCare gives us fresh, new reasons why this is a good idea. (Check your ObamaCare policy if you don't understand.)

Coverage mandates drive up costs and cause people to neglect to read their insurance policies. Allowing insurers and their customers to decide what should be covered and how restores market efficiency that has been missing from healthcare for a very long time. The little bit of wellness incentivization talked about in ObamaCare is nothing compared to market participants with access to current technology and constant fear of being driven out of business by a more service-oriented competitor.

The insurance "industry" will HATE this, but we only need a few consumers to gain an understanding of the powerful benefits of market capitalism to get the ball rolling. Understanding that ObamaCare isn't the beginning of socialism in healthcare but the culmination of decades of incremental takeover by socialists is a pretty good start. If you get it, please share this post.

Any questions?

Matt Bevin can win on this issue

Stumbo fears ObamaCare too late

Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo has killed a fellow Democrat's bill granting legislative approval of the state ObamaCare "exchange" to prevent a repeat of last week's humiliating spectacle in which only 25 House members supported funding the state's part of federal health reform.

House Bill 505 has languished in the Health and Welfare Committee since March 4 despite its sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch of Louisville, serving as the committee's chairman. Without passage of the bill's provisions creating the exchange and the tax to fund it, the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange must fold in July, under KRS 12.028.

"The biggest ObamaCare story of the year happens in Kentucky when the exchange collapses this summer," said David Adams, tea party activist and an ardent opponent of ObamaCare. "Beshear and Stumbo are left now hoping no one notices."

"But voters understand trying to put money into ObamaCare when you don't have to is supporting ObamaCare," Adams said. "Republicans will take over the House in November and the Governor's Mansion next year on that vote alone and Speaker Stumbo is figuring that out just a little too late."

Honest look at Kentucky ObamaCare can't wait

To continue to exist in Kentucky as envisioned by Gov. Steve Beshear, ObamaCare needs two things it does not have and cannot get.

First, the "exchange" needs legal authority and a legally created funding mechanism in order to exist. It has neither. HB 505 attempts to make it legal, but the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Burch, is afraid to call the bill in his own committee for fear someone (*hello Mr. Chairman!*) might expose its obvious fatal shortcomings. Twenty five state House members voted last week to fund the exchange despite its illegality and they were joined by 28 Democrats who hid under their desks rather than vote on the measure, so the illegitimate taxing and spending has been sent to the Senate.

The Medicaid expansion was announced by Gov. Beshear in May of 2013 but he failed to initiate necessary administrative steps until September 30, which was too late to have legally opted in to the Medicaid expansion before it was to take effect on January 1. The whole process failed the requirements of KRS 13A.

The inability of Kentucky's Obamacrats to gain Medicaid expansion will force those who would have been eligible for it to buy insurance at bloated exchange premiums without federal subsidies. Frankfort can seek a federal waiver like Arkansas did to help with this, but they have to get honest first and realize clinging to their illegal attempt creates the biggest mess.

Senate Republicans have been suspiciously silent and that must end. Please call them and wake them up.

What Steve Beshear did with $220 million

Kentucky's Health Benefit Exchange has spent over $220 million in federal grant money setting up a web site that, they claim, works better than other ObamaCare web sites around the country. The federal money dries up on December 31 and then the idea is to come after Kentuckians to finance the wild spending every year, forever.

Gov. Steve Beshear says 1.26 million people have visited the exchange web site and 60,837 have purchased an insurance policy in addition to 239,453 signing up for Medicaid. Even if we take these numbers at face value -- and there are very good reasons not to -- they don't give us any reason to expect ObamaCare is worth the waste of additional dollars.

Only in government would anyone dare suggest spending $200 per visitor to a web site is a good thing. Worse, paying nearly $750 per person who converts into a customer when  four out of five of them not only do not pay (Medicaid) but cost to keep on the books would bankrupt a rich state, which we are not. And we have paid over $3600 per enrollment into a private health insurance plan for 60,837 Kentuckians after federal mandates forced 280,000 off their old plans.

And Beshear has not reported a single cancellation of ObamaCare health plans for any reason, though estimates suggest around half of Beshear's "enrolled" number is bogus. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, we are still spending more than $5000 to throw someone into ObamaCare. That's per person, or $20,000 for a family of four.

With all this, it's unconscionable that Senate President Robert Stivers can't muster whatever he needs to muster to strip funding for the exchange and the Medicaid expansion out of the budget. Please call him at 800-372-7181 and tell him to stop dragging this out and cut funding for ObamaCare now.

The 2014 General Assembly has screwed around on this for way too long. If they really wanted to cut healthcare costs, they would repeal Kentucky's certificate of need laws and quit playing the Obamacrats' silly games.

How many fake ObamaCare sign-ups?

Multiple sources inside the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange report Beshear administration officials in a white hot panic in the last two weeks of ObamaCare open enrollment trying to find bodies to sign up to justify their existence.

It's not going so well.

Applications with fatal errors such as Medicaid recipients who can't be located or verified as existing and health insurance policy applicants who never made their first ObamaCare premium payment have cut deeply into the publicly reported Beshear "success" story, cutting by as many as half the number of people touted as signing up for the program.

And those numbers were already pretty lousy.

Internally, the exchange reports failed insurance applications as "Pending." Exchange Director Carrie Banahan previously promised that unpaid insurance plans would be canceled in January, but she now says they will be dropped off the rolls at the end of March, giving Kentuckians of clearer picture of the disaster.

KY Senate shows sign of life on ObamaCare

The Kentucky Senate has called a special meeting of the Appropriations and Revenue committee for tonight after the session adjourns. They will make a case for withdrawing state funding for at least the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange.

This is a good first step. They must also remove funding for the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in support of common sense, fiscal sanity and House Republicans who already voted to do so.

Governor Beshear has already gotten way too much help from Senate Republicans during his time in office. There is absolutely no reason to continue that nonsense, particularly not for ObamaCare.

Thanks to everyone who called in to Frankfort and otherwise encouraged legislators to find their spines. Keep it up. Chopping up ObamaCare is a multi-step process that ends in the Kentucky Supreme Court.

No time for squishy Republicans

Kentucky's Senate majority leaders must pronounce all ObamaCare funding and legal authority dead on arrival immediately and make clear that no horse trading will bring it back to life, tea party activist David Adams said.

 

"Robert Stivers could have saved us a lot of trouble and a lot of money by standing up against ObamaCare two years ago," Adams said. "He would cut House Republicans off at the knees if he caves in now. We need a decidedly non-squishy statement from him right away."