Beshear's Big Apple buffoonery

If Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear believes the crap he wrote in today's New York Times, he should be first in line for ObamaCare's new -- absurdly unaffordable -- mental health benefits.

"For the first time, we will make affordable health insurance available to every single citizen in the state," Beshear claims, falsely, in an op-ed.

First, we've seen the new ObamaCare rates despite the best efforts of the "most transparent" politicians in history and the big media sycophants who serve them. They aren't affordable even when federally subsidized. More important, health care was much more available and affordable before government started taking it over half a century ago. Beshear and Obama are merely completing that process.

Beshear flatly states, as he has many times before, that 308,000 Kentuckians will go from being uninsured to joining the ranks of those covered by Medicaid. While the number we should really be concerned with is that representing people who drop or forgo private coverage in favor of joining Medicaid, giving people a Medicaid card and making it illegal for them to purchase private coverage on the exchange (as ObamaCare does) will mean less than nothing as providers run away from Medicaid and leave longer lines for lower quality services.

Beshear repeats his claims that Medicaid expansion will be a positive for the economy in Kentucky. How many such false claims must we endure before the fact that big government redistribution schemes don't grow the economy sinks in?

Beshear says 332,000 uninsured Kentuckians will have gain newfound access to affordable coverage with ObamaCare. This lie will be unmasked in dramatic fashion on Tuesday when the well-hidden premiums (and deductibles) are pulled out of hiding and into the daylight.

Beshear finishes his essay as he has all of his ObamaCare speeches -- with a political attack. The hard cold fact Beshear hopes to keep hidden (and his big media friends are doing a great job of assisting) is that Beshear broke the law in a profound way in promoting ObamaCare simply because he wanted to and thought no one would act to stop him. His July 2012 executive order creating the new bureaucracy we know as the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange reorganized state government, rewrote state law and mandated expenditures without legislative approval. KRS 12.028 provides for the governor to do so on a temporary basis, but requires ratification by the full legislature in the next succeeding General Assembly session. Failing that, the statute mandates expiration of the temporary order's provisions ninety days after the session ends. On that ninetieth day, Beshear issued a second executive order re-creating the "exchange," which is also prohibited by the same statute. Think about it: if the governor is allowed to make desired temporary changes to state government without required legislative approval and simply rewrite those changes when they expire, why do we even bother having a legislature at all? A governor so empowered could make any change to statute, raise any tax and spend any amount of money without a legislative vote. Supporters of ObamaCare and Beshear's big-government, left wing ideas may reconsider their zeal for this kind of illegal behavior when the governor is a conservative Republican. But then it will be too late.

Beshear acted with similar lawlessness in effecting the Medicaid expansion. KRS 205.520(3) requires the governor to seek administrative review of actions attempting to achieve additional federal dollars for "medical assistance." This process is spelled out very clearly in KRS 13A. He failed to even initiate this process and now, as the law makes clear, it is too late to even start. The law demands that the Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare can never happen in Kentucky.

Both the illegal creation of the ObamaCare exchange in Kentucky and the Medicaid expansion are being actively challenged in Kentucky's courts right now. Briefs have been filed with the Kentucky Supreme Court and a response from Beshear is pending. Kentuckians will ultimately get the kind of government we deserve; I can only hope we realize that we and our progeny deserve better than this.

Feel better about wasting $252 million now?

Kentucky ObamaCare head crumbles in committee

The executive director of Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange couldn't answer legislator questions today in Frankfort about outrageous deductibles on 2014 ObamaCare health plans or about state funding for the exchange when federal funds run out at the end of 2014.

Carrie Banahan mumbled and demurred during today's budget committee meeting and did not answer direct questions about how unaffordable even the most subsidized health plans will be in Kentucky under ObamaCare. She adamantly declared ignorance when asked specifically how the state would pay for its illegal exchange.

The illegal executive order filed by Gov. Steve Beshear in 2013 to create the exchange also attempts to create a funding mechanism for the exchange with a new insurance tax. That executive order, if the Kentucky Supreme Court doesn't throw it out first, would have to be ratified by the 2014 General Assembly. There is no chance of that happening.

Kentucky's 2014 Humana ObamaCare subsidized health premium rates shockingly high

A 25 year old single Franklin County, Kentucky non-smoker with a $25,000 annual income purchasing a Humana Silver plan effective January 1, 2014 will pay $144.17 per month for a $3250 deductible plan that pays all approved medical expenses after a $4750 maximum out of pocket limit is reached and all applicable federal subsidies are applied. Humana currently offers on ehealthinsurance.com a $3500 deductible plan with $3500 maximum out of pocket plan for the same person with a monthly premium of $86.57. Humana claims significant rate reductions in their 2014 approved rate request filing with the Kentucky Department of Insurance by limiting provider networks available to their customers.

Incidentally, this premium applies to all ages at this income level. Unsubsidized, this plan will cost $243.81 for an 18 year old and go higher from there based on age.

The same 25 year old person with a $40,000 annual income will receive no federal subsidy and will face a monthly premium of $206.87 for the closest available plan, in which the unsubsidized deductible is increased to $4600 and the unsubsidized maximum out of pocket limit is increased to $6300.

A 50 year old single Franklin County, Kentucky non-smoker with a $40,000 annual income purchasing a Humana Silver plan effective January 1, 2014 will pay $316.67 per month for a $4600 deductible plan that pays all approved medical expenses after a $6300 maximum out of pocket limit is reached and all applicable federal subsidies are applied. Humana currently offers on ehealthinsurance.com a $5000 deductible plan with $5000 maximum out of pocket plan for the same person with a monthly premium of $176.46. Humana claims significant rate reductions in their 2014 approved rate request filing with the Kentucky Department of Insurance by limiting provider networks available to their customers.

The unsubsidized premium for the same 50 year old would be $368.01 per month.

A Franklin County non-smoker with a $16,000 income purchasing a Humana Silver plan effective January 1, 2014 will pay $44.92 per month for a $3250 deductible plan that pays all approved medical expenses after a $4750 maximum out of pocket limit is reached and all applicable federal subsidies are applied. That means this person would have to spend more than twenty percent of his or her annual income before gaining the benefit of major medical health insurance.

Beshear plan to dump state employees moves forward

Governor Steve Beshear sent two lawyers to talk to the Committee on State Government today in Frankfort about wild cost increases in the state employee health plan.

Commissioner of the Department of Employee Insurance Joe Cowles attempted to deflect attention from increased costs and it mostly worked. Some legislators complained about a high volume of calls from state workers shocked by their 2014 plans, but their concerns, if any, were eerily low-key.

Senator Ernie Harris told Cowles that the Administration's plans might "save the state." They are being led like lambs to slaughter. Tomorrow at 1pm, the same dog-and-pony show goes before the Appropriations and Revenue Committee, which just might have reason to be a little more attentive.

Pitchforks and torches for Mitch McConnell right now

Hundreds of concerned Kentucky citizens will converge on Sen. Mitch McConnell's Louisville office at 11am Wednesday morning to shake him up on ObamaCare.

At issue is Sen. McConnell's insistence on allowing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to remove continuing resolution ObamaCare defunding language with only a majority of senators, rather than 60. McConnell's actions, in keeping with his long-standing fight against conservatives on this, would make defunding ObamaCare harder.

McConnell is running very misleading ads on television in Kentucky portraying himself as an ObamaCare opponent while he works behind the scenes to undermine conservative efforts to kill the federal takeover of the American healthcare system.

McConnell insists privately that caving in and waiting for the law to fail under its own weight will work to end ObamaCare. We are still waiting for that strategy to work with defeating Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Beshear fines Humana $65,000 for telling truth about rates

Humana sent letters out to health insurance customers in Kentucky this summer warning them that ObamaCare will cause their premiums to explode upward in January and advising them how to limit harm to their personal finances caused by radical left-wing politicians. The Kentucky Department of Insurance fined Humana $65,000 in August for their efforts, in every way punishing them for telling the truth.

Gov. Steve Beshear has repeatedly violated state law to ram through ObamaCare, by creating an ObamaCare "exchange" at state taxpayer expense without legislative approval and by expanding Medicaid without completing legally required administrative review. Both of these issues are on their way to the Kentucky Supreme Court. Punishing truth-telling with massive fines is certainly in keeping with Beshear's disdain for the rule of law, but continued silence by Republican "leaders" should disgust every Kentuckian.

We must criminalize violations of KRS 12.028 and KRS 205.520(3) to ease removal of politicians like Beshear for subverting the legislative process.

Beshear crushes Kentucky's poor

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has spent four months filling desperate citizens with false hope promoting an impossible ObamaCare pipedream and the time has come for him to face the music.

Kentucky Supreme Court case 2013-SC-000652-T represents the first step toward getting Gov. Beshear right with our state's most vulnerable people by nullifying his illegal attempt to expand Medicaid eligibility, a state option under the Affordable Care Act.

"Governor Beshear has broken the law, lied in court and lied to the people of Kentucky promoting a ridiculous ObamaCare scheme that becomes more hated as more information becomes available," said David Adams, plaintiff in the lawsuit.

"Beshear is now hiding behind court rules to delay into October well-deserved punishment for his crimes," Adams said. "If he has any pride left he should respond immediately to the Supreme Court so we can get all this out in the open before wasting billions of dollars further wrecking our healthcare system."

Beshear violated KRS 205.520(3) by not initiating the KRS 13A administrative review process of the proposed Medicaid expansion, falsified court documents to downplay risks of accepting the expansion and has falsely portrayed Medicaid expansion as initially cost-free to the Commonwealth, risk-free to our existing Medicaid population and revenue-positive to the General Fund.

Obama/Beshear drop Syria, declare war on Kentucky

The Obama Administration's Environmental Protection Agency is set to post new regulations, perhaps today, that would make building of new coal-fired power plants impossible anywhere in America.

This action would hasten an untimely death for affordable electricity in Kentucky. Obama's advocacy for killing coal deserves a stronger response from the Bluegrass State than Governor Steve Beshear's squishy letter to the EPA, especially after Beshear has done backflips for the President in subverting state law trying to force job-killing ObamaCare on us, too.

Come on, Gov. Beshear. You can do better than this.

Why Kentucky probably won't have Anthem in a year

When Kentucky politicians rammed through their version of HillaryCare in 1994, all the individual health plans but Anthem fled the state. In 2014, it's payback time and Anthem will pay very hard.

Only three insurers will play in Kentucky's ObamaCare "exchange" and Anthem will be the most expensive, by a long shot. Worse, I ran my family's ages through Anthem's current and 2014 rate charts and found their premiums more than doubling as ObamaCare takes full effect in January.

Humana will be a major beneficiary of the likely demise of Anthem, but the real winner appears to be the federally-created Kentucky Health Cooperative with the state's lowest premiums. In other words, the single-payer dream has almost been fulfilled in Kentucky.

All the more reason to keep the pressure up on Kentucky's incompetent and destructive health regulation bureaucracy with three state lawsuits headed to the Kentucky Supreme Court and more on the way soon. Stay tuned for details.

Kentucky's ObamaCare fight moves to state Supreme Court

Kentucky's tea party challenge to state implementation of ObamaCare took a big step forward today with the first in a series of arguments to reach the Commonwealth's Supreme Court.

David Adams said the case centered on preventing "improper and illegal use of government powers to effect an optional expansion of Kentucky's Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act."

Adams is petitioning the Court to transfer his appeal immediately from the Court of Appeals in order to gain a faster resolution to the case. Governor Steve Beshear and Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Audrey Haynes are the Respondents.

"Respondents cited KRS 205.520(3) and KRS 194A.050(1) as providing justification for their actions, while ignoring that both statutes explicitly call for the Commonwealth's regulatory review process to be engaged and completed," Adams said. "That is the first key fact in this case, but it was ignored by Respondents and by the Circuit Court."

Beshear and Haynes have claimed throughout the case that legal limits on their powers under state statute were of no consequence because they are merely obeying federal law and that the expansion can be reversed later at the state's option when it becomes clear the expansion is unaffordable and not a workable solution to the state's indigent care problem. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, made clear that the Medicaid expansion is optional for states and the supposed state withdrawal option simply does not exist.

The issue of the false claim of a state exit strategy was a contentious one in Franklin Circuit Court written and oral arguments, but was ignored by Judge Phillip Shepherd in his September 3 ruling in favor of the Medicaid expansion.

Governor Beshear's failure to follow Kentucky's administrative review process earlier this year when there was time to complete the process legally -- it can easily take nine months for a contentious issue -- now boxes him in to claiming that there is no process limiting his actions, despite ample clarity in statute. Inexplicably, that strategy worked in the Circuit Court. It is now a key part of the appeal.

"KRS 13A.090 states 'the courts shall take judicial notice of any administrative regulation duly filed under the provisions of this chapter after the administrative regulation has been adopted.' In this instance, an administrative action effecting the optional Medicaid expansion was neither 'duly filed' nor 'adopted' pursuant to Kentucky law," Adams said. "The Franklin Circuit Court ignored those facts and recognized a regulation that does not exist."

Adams said the time for initiating the process of accepting the Medicaid expansion has now passed.

"Before required public hearings, discussion and votes could take place to possibly adopt the administrative regulation necessary to effect the ACA Medicaid expansion, the provision would pass beyond being a state option as it is now to becoming a part of permanent federal law on January 1, 2014 without legal and proper completion of the review process required by KRS 13A," Adams said. "The law, once subverted in this way, renders the voice of the people silent in all matters proscribed by law to be governed by regulatory review."

The two sides now await word from the Supreme Court to set up a hearing schedule.

Much cheaper to throw state employees into ObamaCare

The individual per person cost of insuring a Kentucky state employee under their new plan in 2014 will be $933.16 a month. That applies to every individual employee regardless of any factors that might otherwise impact an insurance premium rate. Under ObamaCare, a Louisville resident age 64, non-smoker who chooses a $6300 deductible will have a total cost of insurance of $905.73 a month if he uses up all of his deductible.

Most state employees, obviously, are less than 64 and won't use up all of a $6300 deductible for the Bronze plan, which is projected to be the most popular ObamaCare plan.

I've had several legislators tell me Gov. Beshear can't throw the state employees into ObamaCare without legislative approval. That, of course, depends on what the Kentucky Supreme Court thinks KRS 12.028 means when it says the same thing.

And to be clear, this is no endorsement of ObamaCare. It's just that the state employee plan was purposely set up this year to be far worse even than that. A 26 year old Louisville resident and non-smoker on the same ObamaCare plan will have a monthly cost of $659.95. That's horrible compared to 2013, but a bargain compared to costs on the state plan.

State employee health plans a dangerous ripoff

The Kentucky state employee health plans are out for 2014 and it is not a pretty sight.

The cheapest Humana plan, called Standard CDHP costs $641.50 for an individual plan. The employee contribution into that amount is $12.98 and the rest comes from taxpayers. We fund the plan with $250 for the employee to spend on co-payments and deductible for the year. The maximum out-of-pocket liability for the employee is $3500 and the deductible is $1750.

That means in addition to the monthly premium, the customer is on the hook for the first $1750 in medical expenses each year. That's the equivalent of a zero deductible plan costing 787.33 a month (641.60 + (1750/12)). After the deductible, it's a 70/30 plan. That means anything substantial gets you up to the $3500 annual out-of-pocket -- which includes the deductible. So if you add the additional $145.83 a month in for the additional out of pocket ((3500-1750)/12), we are paying $933.16 per month for health coverage for each employee.

It's not hard to imagine that whoever negotiated these rates for our state employees had in mind a plan to go back and argue that it would be cheaper to just throw them all on the ObamaCare "exchange."

It's yet another reason to storm the castle to stop Gov. Beshear from illegally throwing us into ObamaCare.

Will Beshear wait to screw KY Supreme Court justices?

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is quietly completing plans to throw state employees, including the seven Supreme Court justices he needs to approve his illegal ObamaCare implementation actions, into the state health insurance "exchange."

State employees are just now being notified of massive premium rate increases for 2014 caused by ObamaCare, and Beshear's hope is apparently to attempt to capitalize on the confusion of the run-up to the launch of the massive federal program to announce the shift as a major cost-cutting move for the state.

Steve Beshear's bad faith dealings with the people of Kentucky include violating state law where it limits his power to act without proper approval and then falsifying court documents to hide his criminal activity. Kentuckians of all political stripes must reject his lawlessness. A good place to start is to criminalize violations of KRS 12.028, which Gov. Beshear used to start this whole mess.

Emperor Beshear stripped naked

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's Department of Insurance thugs have insisted for over a month that health insurance rates for 2014 weren't ready for public inspection yet. We now know this was not true.

Beshear will hold a hastily-arranged pro-ObamaCare rally tomorrow in Frankfort to attempt to spin the disastrous new premiums. Stand by for details to be made available as we get them.

Biggest left-wing newspaper sitting on Kentucky story

Reporters at the New York Times have known about what is happening with ObamaCare in Kentucky for many months, but you wouldn't know it from reading their newspaper.

Minutes ago, someone at the large, old and powerful left-wing paper checked in here for the latest and read our big news confirming ObamaCare's devastation of Kentucky's health insurance market. Here's the proof:

They and the rest of the journalistic hacks sitting on ObamaCare stories can continue to play dumb if they want, but you know better.

Humana actuary confirms ObamaCare rate shock

Humana actuary Nick Mueller today confirmed the Kentucky Department of Insurance has approved ObamaCare health premiums very close to the eighty percent increase he requested in June.

Internal Department of Insurance documents received today from Lori Brown at the Department contain final, approved premium information for Humana, Anthem and Kentucky Health Cooperative, the only three companies who applied to participate in the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Anthem and the Kentucky Health Cooperative got exactly what rates they applied for, while Humana received a cut of less than one percent from their initial proposed increase.

Humana's rates appear to be the cheapest across the board of all three companies.

This information was acquired through an open records request served on the Department of Insurance last Friday, despite their receipt three years ago of a federal grant to improve transparency and to specifically make rate information available without the necessity of an open records request.

Other reporters who have gone to the Department seeking this information today have been told that it is not available. Kentucky Progress will fix that on Monday.

The Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange is a state entity created by Gov. Beshear under a temporary state government reorganization Executive Order in 2012. It's creation was not ratified by the 2013 General Assembly, which is required by KRS 12.028. Its continued operation is currently being challenged in state courts.

Another try for "Governor Transparency"

When Steve Beshear was first running for Governor, his favorite word was "transparency." Since he has been in office, though, his campaign rhetoric has dissipated to nothing.

A sleepy state media has probably emboldened Beshear in his secrecy.

The case of the 2014 ObamaCare health insurance premiums currently unfolding paints a rather unflattering portrait of politician and press alike.

The hottest news story in the country in 2013 has been ObamaCare. Will it work; will it be a hugely expensive disaster? You know the drill.

Kentucky's coverage has been rather sparse as well as one-sided bordering on cheerleading for President Obama's top legislative agenda item.

After several weeks of begging, cajoling, screaming and pestering, I've finally gotten a commitment from Kentucky Department of Insurance officials that sometime on Friday they will give me access to next year's rates -- some of which have been finalized more than a month.

It should be an unending source of embarrassment to our state media that I am getting this first.

Tea Party headed to Kentucky Supreme Court

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled today in favor of Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's illegal actions to force his state into ObamaCare.

Shepherd ruled KRS 12.028, which provides the Governor with temporary reorganization powers, ignored language in section 5 of that statute which requires re-issuance of temporary restructuring to wait until after the 2014 General Assembly session starts. Gov. Beshear created the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange under a 2012 Executive Order which was not ratified by the 2013 General Assembly. He then issued a new Executive Order creating the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, an action which is specifically prohibited by this statute.

Shepherd also ruled that the regulatory process explicitly required by KRS 205.520(3) and KRS 194A.050(1) does not apply to Gov. Beshear in expanding Medicaid, though it clearly does.

Governor Beshear had to lie in court and break state law in order to pretend to have authority specifically denied him by statute and the Constitution. He needed a judge to ignore these facts and now he needs four of seven who are elected in districts whose people understand and oppose ObamaCare. I don't think he can do it.

Beshear wasting $4.2 million ObamaCare grant

Kentucky's Department of Insurance is ignoring multiple open records requests for 2014 individual market health insurance rates under ObamaCare despite accepting more than $4.2 million in federal grant money over the last three years to improve transparency of the rate review process.

In fact, a federal grant application summary from 2011 promises "(t)he State will also enhance its website further to allow consumers access to rate filings without going through the open records process."

Employers and insurance brokers around the state report group health premium rates almost doubling from 2013 to 2014 with ObamaCare taking effect, an unprecedented explosion in health insurance costs.

According to the Department of Insurance web site, all the health plans set to participate in the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange individual market had their rates approved in August.

The incompetence and fraud on display at the Kentucky Department of Insurance and the lack of media coverage of same is easily the biggest political scandal of 2013 in the state. A functioning Republican Party would be all over this.

Do left wing blog readers hate garlic, too?

All I did earlier today was helpfully post information to the biggest leftist political blog, Daily Kos, hoping to stir up a conversation about separation of powers and constitutional limits on elected officials.

Before banning me for life for my trouble, they pretty much responded like vampires to sunlight. Pretty funny stuff.

Criminalize Beshearism

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear seems to be determined to gain a legacy of law-breaking. Kentuckians must respond by criminalizing his illegal behavior so his shenanigans are not repeated.

Specifically, when Beshear violated KRS 12.028, he did so knowing there was no penalty for his actions. In fact, he clearly expected to get away with it. KRS 12.028 should be amended to penalize any governor who attempts to reorganize government as the statute provides without following the requirements of the statute. Specifically, when Beshear sought to create the Kentucky health benefit exchange via executive order he needed subsequent ratification of his temporary action by the legislature to make it permanent. He did not get such ratification. Though the law clearly states that the executive order then becomes null and void, Beshear has attempted to ignore that limitation on his power by continuing to develop the ObamaCare "exchange."

The statute contains no criminal penalties for violation of its provisions. It needs them. A member of the Kentucky General Assembly with courage should file a bill creating criminal penalties for a governor who ignores these legal limits.

Also, when Gov. Beshear sought to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare he claimed KRS 205.520(3) gave him the authority to do so. It does, but with the provision that such may be effectuated only "by regulation." Gov. Beshear has ignored that part of the statute and has, therefore, violated that statute. He has waited so long to initiate the administrative review process that it can not now be used to expand Medicaid under the provisions of PPACA -- ever. Case law in Kentucky provides for statutes that are abused like this can be found unconstitutional. Both statutes are being challenged in this manner in Franklin Circuit Court.

If the statutes are not found unconstitutional, they should be amended to include criminal penalties. Those bills should be pre-filed immediately.

Kentucky health insurance secret ends Friday

Kentucky Department of Insurance officials confirm that 2014 individual health insurance rates will be approved by the end of this week. That comes six weeks after it became clear ObamaCare would blow up the state's health insurance market.

Expect a late Friday afternoon document dump and next week all kinds of ferocious spinning about how your own eyes are misleading you into thinking ObamaCare presents any kind of a problem.

Rhymes with "smallpox"

Gov. Steve Beshear was in Lexington today ripping on Kentucky citizens who have challenged his ObamaCare-related law breaking.

"I believe these critics are blinded by a disease that I would call knee-jerk partisan politics, and that disease clouds their vision and quite frankly sometimes wonder if it doesn't harden their hearts a bit," Beshear told the Lexington Herald Leader.

Xerox officials stood by quietly and smiled while Beshear poured out his absurd ObamaCare attacks. Under state statute KRS 12.028 the 100 Xerox jobs they were celebrating today can not exist because they were not legally authorized.

This matter is currently being litigated in Franklin Circuit Court.

Hold your nose: McConnell likes parts of ObamaCare

In one television interview, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell managed to open up two cans of worms for himself on ObamaCare.

Better grab your nose.

"There are a handful of things in the 2,700-page bill that are probably are okay," Mitch told WYMT Hazard on Tuesday. Do tell, Senator, but please try to keep the waste in the hundreds of billions for the rest of us.

And speaking of waste, McConnell squanders more time distorting the effort to defund ObamaCare when he said "the problem with the bill that would shut down the government wouldn't shut down ObamaCare."

Senator McConnell, the bill supported by Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz would prohibit federal spending on ObamaCare and destroy it too quickly for anyone to find out what parts of the law McConnell likes. The fact that mandates and taxes would stay on the books for a little while without any federal funding is a distinction without a difference if you are measuring distance between defunding and repealing.

Framing the debate as defunding the disastrous law in the current continuing resolution versus allowing the current spending plan to expire without a replacement is merely about buying time to unwind the law in an orderly fashion that works better for all Americans than stumbling on into the train wreck we are in no way ready for.

The truth Sen. McConnell doesn't want you to know is that his biggest campaign donors are perfectly happy with him making meaningless speeches about ObamaCare as long as he doesn't stop its implementation. That's what is really behind all this senatorial doubletalk.

Another example of Facebook replacing mainstream media

Under ObamaCare, Kentuckians face enormous 2014 health premium increases you would never know about if you depended on mainstream media for your news.

Today's example comes from Lexington Trailer & Hitch, whose Anthem renewal specified a 94% increase if they renew in 2014 and only a 10% increase if they renew early before ObamaCare hits.

We learned about this, of course, on Facebook:

And if you are wondering, off-cycle policy renewal is not available to individuals.

Huge crowd expected for ObamaCare hearing in Frankfort

Kentucky's Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare is still trying to cram ObamaCare down our throats, ignoring KRS 12.028(5) and its limits on the Governor's ability to re-issue expired executive orders that failed to achieve legislative ratification.

If you oppose ObamaCare and have the ability to join us at the State Capitol Annex at noon on Wednesday, August 21, the meeting will be in Room 129. Bring friends.

Activist: Beshear "has chosen the side of evil"

Kentucky Citizens Judicial President David Adams filed a lawsuit in state court yesterday challenging the constitutionality of a state law regulating health coverage options for Christians.

The case brings up issues about the proper role of government in healthcare just weeks before ObamaCare is supposed to take effect in Kentucky and around the nation.

"The Beshear Administration violating rights of Christians is nothing new, but us fighting back is," Adams said. "The Governor has chosen the side of evil in this fight and he will lose for several reasons, not the least of which is that we have the Constitution on our side."

Adams says Kentucky's Insurance Code effectively forbids a practice called "religious health sharing," an alternative to health insurance for people of faith. A decade long court battle to single out one such group of Christians ended last month with an agreement to let them practice their faith, but without resolving problems in the law.

"Kentucky's Constitution is unique in America in specifically prohibiting arbitrary application of the law and that is the most important fact in this case," Adams said. "You can't criminalize an activity as a government and then pick out some participants to grant special permission to proceed anyway. Western society has been fighting this kind of outrageous imperial behavior going back 800 years to the Magna Carta."

"Even the ObamaCare law gets out of the way of Christian health sharing for the most part. I don't know why Kentucky can't get this right, too," Adams said.

Governor Beshear has three weeks to respond to the lawsuit.

Suing for health freedom in Kentucky

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY

FRANKLIN CIRCUIT COURT

DIVISION ___

CASE NO. 13-CI-__________

 

DAVID ADAMS                                                                                           PLAINTIFF

 

v.                                                         COMPLAINT

 

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY                                                   DEFENDANTS

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, Steven L. Beshear

OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE,

Sharon P. Clark

Serve: Governor Steven L. Beshear

Office of the Governor

700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100

Frankfort KY 40601

 

Serve: Commissioner Sharon P. Clark

Department of Insurance

215 W. Main

Frankfort KY 40601

Serve: Attorney General Jack Conway

Office of the Attorney General

700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 118

Frankfort KY 40601

___________________________________________________________________________

 

Plaintiff, David Adams, respectfully states as follows:

 

NATURE OF ACTION

This is a civil action for declaratory and injunctive relief relating to KRS 304.1-120(7), a statute regulating health insurance in the Commonwealth. Plaintiff seeks a declaration that this statute is unconstitutional in that it violates Sections 2 and 190 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Further, Plaintiff seeks a court order forbidding Defendants from enforcing the statute’s arbitrary provisions which limit Plaintiff’s clear understanding of rights under an agreement with a private corporation regulated by KRS 304.1-120(7). Attorney General Jack Conway is being served with a copy of this Complaint pursuant to KRS.418.075 in as much as the constitutionality of KRS. 304.1-120(7) is brought into question.

 

FACTS

Plaintiff is a citizen of the Commonwealth and a member of Samaritan Ministries, a religious health sharing organization purportedly exempted from state insurance regulation by KRS 304.1-120(7) and from federal mandates under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in Section 1501 of that law under the heading “Health Care Sharing Ministry.”

The federal PPACA law, in an attempt to expand healthcare coverage choices for Americans, makes few unnecessary restrictions on the ongoing operations of such health sharing groups. Kentucky law, however, declares these entities must have “no assumption of risk or promise to pay either among the participants or between the participants and the organization.”

These restrictions defeat the purpose of the health sharing organizations, which exist to limit personal liability for healthcare expenses by sharing mutual assumptions of risk and multiple payment agreements involving explicit promises to pay. Enforcement of state law in regard to this type of entity and arrangement has been haphazard and reckless, substantially depriving consumers fleeing government regulated insurance of a rational basis upon which to make risk management decisions and perpetuating an arbitrary and capricious application of state law in violation of the Section 2 prohibition of “absolute and arbitrary power” and the Section 190 limit on state regulation of corporations to “general laws” only.

Time is of the essence in resolving this issue because the PPACA is set to take full effect on January 1, 2014 with substantial premium increases in government-regulated health insurance and very limited alternatives such as religious health sharing for Kentucky consumers generally and Plaintiff specifically to properly manage healthcare costs. Lack of clarity in the application of the law is both expensive and needlessly hazardous.

ARGUMENT

Existing statute and case law combine to wreak havoc on the market for health coverage in the United States and in Kentucky. If followed to the letter, state law would eliminate the alternative of religious health sharing organizations in the Commonwealth, despite efforts on the federal and state level to preserve such alternatives for the benefits they provide to the health and welfare of their members, and the safety valve they form for consumers who would otherwise be trapped in the government-created and controlled system as it fails increasingly large segments of the population.

Plaintiff merely seeks clarity from government officials where precious little currently exists. The only way to achieve that is with a court ruling that KRS 304.1-120(7) unconstitutionally singles out and inhibits religious health sharing groups and their members from protecting themselves efficiently against the risk of large medical expenses. Such is certainly not within the bounds of any kind of public purpose envisioned by the legislature as the people’s representatives and therefore calls for swift action from the Court.

JURISDICTION

Jurisdiction is proper pursuant to KRS 418.040 and Kentucky Constitution Section 112 (5).

PRAYER FOR RELIEF

            Plaintiff seeks a Court ruling that KRS 304.1-120(7) is unconstitutional in that it effectively prohibits the existence of Plaintiff’s chosen health care coverage provider whose operation is both legal under federal law and has been found constitutional by the United States Supreme Court. Legislative action in the 2013 General Assembly (Senate Bill 3) in conjunction with a July 23, 2013 order from this court sought to clarify availability of religious health sharing options but did not address the statute’s constitutional infirmities. Such is the purpose of this action.

 

Respectfully submitted,


David Adams
121 Nave Place
Nicholasville, KY 40356
859-537-5372
kyprogress@yahoo.com

Plaintiff
 
 


   
This certifies the forgoing was served this ____ day of __________, 2013 via U.S. Mail upon:


Serve: Governor Steven L. Beshear
Office of the Governor
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100
Frankfort, KY 40601

Serve: Commissioner Sharon P. Clark

Department of Insurance

215 W. Main

Frankfort, KY 40601

Attorney General Jack Conway
Office of the Attorney General
700 Capitol Avenue Ste. 118
Frankfort KY 40601



       _________________________________
      
       David Adams

Beshear telegraphs Medicaid budget games

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear showed in a Finance and Administration document obtained yesterday how he plans to hide Medicaid costs under ObamaCare and state employees will be underwhelmed by his lack of creativity.

Beshear plans to hide about ten percent, and possibly more, of Medicaid costs in the first year of ObamaCare by pushing it off to the first budget year after he leaves office.

Commonwealth's Request for Proposal 758 1300000399 for Medicaid managed care contracts including an illegally expanded Medicaid program under ObamaCare states in Section 30.060.30.10.45 "(f)or members added pursuant to Medicaid expansion under the ACA, the methods used to determine the risk assessment and risk adjustment amount will be designed to be budget neutral to the Commonwealth."

That means provider payments will be cut and services denied in order to balance the books, if you believe the books will actually be balanced. They won't be.

Section 30.060.30.10.10 state "(t)he Department reserves the right, if needed, to delay the monthly payment due on or before June 8, 2014 to on or before July 8, 2014."

The Commonwealth's fiscal year ends June 30. Get the picture?

Kentucky's procurement officials were informed to not share this information, though one eventually did.

NSA, eat your heart out (state ObamaCare email edition)

In case you have been wondering about the silence of media, insurance bureaucrats and left-wing politicians in the two weeks since the initial report of Humana of Kentucky's request for an eighty percent rate increase for health insurance under ObamaCare, wonder no more.

We now have proof.

An internal Kentucky Insurance Department email exchange between Department of Insurance employee Lynda Johnson and Humana actuary Nick Mueller dated June 19 and June 20 clearly refers to Humana's rate increase request. Here is Ms. Johnson's email:

This information has been publicly available for two weeks. The failure of Kentucky's media to cover this great failure of ObamaCare is a disgrace.

My favorite bureaucratic dodge

An attorney for Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear inadvertently makes the case for getting state government under control via the courts in a legal brief filed quietly on Friday.

"Only the Legislature has the authority to decide what constitutes a valid public purpose, and its determination cannot be disturbed as long as the basis is reasonable," said Beshear attorney John C. Enochs. (emphasis added)

This came in Franklin Circuit Court case 13-CI-785 Adams v. Commonwealth, in which the plaintiff seeks a determination that Kentucky's economic development subsidies and tax breaks violate Section 177. Click here and decide for yourself if arbitrarily giving deals or donations to individual companies comports with the plain language of our founding document.

Mr. Enochs also claims this issue was already decided when the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld in 1987 a statute enacted in 1986 to allow such donations to be given to Toyota Motor Manufacturing. This miscarriage of justice, as well-intentioned as it was, opened the flood gates to many more such well-intentioned but far less beneficial deals.

That 1987 court case was based on theory. The one in 2013 will be based on a quarter century of facts. Those facts will not be kind to those who want to argue that the basis for violating the Constitution in 1986 was reasonable.

Rooting out invalid "public purposes" in Kentucky law will not be a comfortable process for the bureaucrats and politicians who have built great fortunes subverting constitutional principles in the name of the public "good."

The evidence will convict them.

Let my people go!

There is a quick, cheap and easy way out of ObamaCare for most Kentuckians but the powers that be conspire to keep it from us in a way that shines a bright light on all that is wrong with government-controlled health insurance.

Consider first an Associated Press story out this weekend with the headline "Christian health program back in Kentucky." The story refers to a judge's ruling allowing Christian Medi-Share back into the state while mentioning that a legislative bill signed by Governor Beshear had a similar effect a month ago and that the company had actually resumed operations then.  

These actions return the number of such religious health sharing plans to three for Kentuckians as Christian HealthCare Ministries and Samaritan Ministries were never forced out as Christian Medi-Share was.

This AP story glosses over the significance of this event in by failing to mention that individuals and families who join these groups become exempt from the ObamaCare individual coverage mandate and federal penalties attached to not buying government-controlled health insurance. It also misleads readers about costs of these programs when it states "Medi-Share ... participants, who pay an average of $300 a month" without specifying that this amount covers an entire family. Kentucky's ObamaCare premiums will cost about that much per person.

Unfortunately, this media perpetuated ignorance is just part of the problem.

Kentucky needs to go back in and expand its exemption to eliminate the state government created black market effect in these plans and our congressional delegation should lead the way on expanding the federal exemption to allow creation of more competition in the marketplace for free market healthcare.

Politicians who talk about repealing ObamaCare but refuse to help with these needed reforms need to explain in detail how they are not part of the problem. Click here for a detailed explanation of what we need to do.

And to be completely clear, we need to expand this coverage option to include non-Christians as soon as possible, too. It's the Christian thing to do and if the people who pushed us into the trainwreck want a way out politically from the disaster they have created, this would do it.

Beshear preparing to shut ObamaCare Exchange

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has removed responsibility for Kentucky's unconstitutional Medicaid expansion from his illegal Health Benefit Exchange, we learned today.

That's probably a good idea because a hearing in Franklin Circuit Court on Thursday, August 1 could result in the state shutting down it's ObamaCare "exchange."

And that's very likely to happen because the Constitution sets clear boundaries between the authority of the legislature and the Executive Branch.

"If the Governor's challenged actions are upheld, the Legislative Branch would become irrelevant," said Michael Dean, attorney for the tea party plaintiffs.

Completing the application process for Medicaid, now the job of the Department for Medicaid Services, was made more difficult today by a ruling opening the door for finding that process unconstitutional before state bureaucrats can complete their work.

Judge paves way for win in Medicaid Expansion lawsuit

With two just issued court orders, a Franklin County (KY) Circuit Court judge changed the dynamics of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's plan to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare, increasing the likelihood of a tea party victory.

Judge Phillip Shepherd has effectively placed Tea Party activist David Adams, plaintiff in the case, on an even playing field with the Governor going forward in the case by forcing the Governor to answer questions about his ObamaCare actions, by setting a date for resolution of the case prior to ObamaCare open enrollment on October 1 and leaving the door open for stopping the Beshear Administration from making an end run around the process and signing Kentucky up for Medicaid expansion with the Obama Administration before the case is fully heard.

"Governor Beshear needs to follow proper procedure in Kentucky because our laws and our Constitution are stronger than those of the federal government in protecting individual rights," Adams said. "Of course, neither are any good if we don't use them. I appreciate Judge Shepherd for recognizing the value of our republican form of government and acting to restrain the Governor in this way. Without proper process, we couldn't win. With it, the facts and the Constitution speak for themselves and for us. Now we can win."

The application process for the Medicaid expansion is being managed by the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, whose very existence is in jeopardy with an August 1 hearing back in Judge Shepherd's courtroom.   

Beshear defaults

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has failed to respond to a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of his most potent political weapon, economic development incentives. The suit was filed on July 2; Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway were served on July 3. 

"Governor Beshear has raised abusing this illegitimate power of picking winners and losers in the marketplace to an art form," David Adams, plaintiff in the lawsuit, said. 

"The flimsy legal case for doling out 'incentives' in Kentucky hinges on something called 'public purpose,' while the results of decades of this practice show that if we were really interested in serving the public we wouldn't be screwing around like this. The Kentucky Constitution literally demands that we stop the corporate welfare nonsense and lower regulatory costs on job creators if jobs are what we want to create." 

Beshear/Obama lose again in Kentucky

Gov. Steve Beshear lost another motion in court today when a Franklin Circuit judge refused to grant his request to skip discovery in a Tea Party case challenging the legality of Kentucky's ObamaCare Medicaid expansion.

Judge Phillip Shepherd set the next order of business as ruling on constitutionality of KRS 205.520(3), the statute Beshear cited as justification for attempting to accept a dramatic increase in the size of the state's Medicaid program.

"The law grants extraordinary power to the Governor to accept federal money for 'medical assistance' and that violates the plain language of Section 2 of the Kentucky Constitution," said David Adams, plaintiff in the case.

Section 2 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky says "Absolute and arbitrary power over the lives, liberty and property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic, not even in the largest majority."

KRS 205.520(3) says: Further, it is the policy of the Commonwealth to take advantage of all federal funds that may be available for medical assistance. To qualify for federal funds the secretary for health and family services may by regulation comply with any requirement that may be imposed or opportunity that may be presented by federal law. Nothing in KRS 205.510 to 205.630 is intended to limit the secretary's power in this respect.

Beshear sends ridiculous letter

Governor Steve Beshear has refused to answer even a single discovery question in our lawsuit to stop his illegal creation of the ObamaCare Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, so when I got a letter from his attorney today chastising me for investigating his unconstitutional Medicaid Expansion I had to laugh.

"Showing up unannounced at the offices of the Health Benefit Exchange is not an appropriate way to obtain information so long as your lawsuit is pending," wrote Beshear attorney Mark D. Guilfoyle. He asked me to submit questions to him in writing, including open records requests.

My suggestion to Mr. Guilfoyle (and Mr. Beshear hiding behind Guilfoyle's skirt) is that he (or perhaps, they) take the earliest possible opportunity to travel to somewhere near the middle of Mammoth Cave underground without navigational tools of any kind.

Click here to read the whole letter.

 

Beshear faked evidence nets Bar complaint

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's latest court filing in his bid to force Kentucky into the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion without proper legislative approval may now put his license to practice law in jeopardy.

Tea Party activist David Adams, plaintiff in two lawsuits opposing Beshear's questionable ObamaCare actions, filed a Kentucky Bar Association complaint for evidence Beshear filed in the case which clearly was manufactured to advance his pro-Obama agenda.

"All you have to do is look," Adams said. "Beshear did this to himself and he should be held accountable."

Click here to view the entire complaint.

Humana actuary: our health rates going up 80% in Kentucky

A health insurance actuary at Humana testified in a Kentucky Department of Insurance rate filing document made publicly available today that his company's individual health premiums need to go up eighty percent in 2014 and that sixty percent of that increase is due to the ObamaCare requirement for all applications to be accepted.

Nicholas Mueller, the actuary, requested a rate increase of 91.3% on Humana plan KY71037 and 47.2% on KY71108 which he said is comparable to the current KY71037-01. The Kentucky Department of Insurance demanded $300 for a computer disk with all the new rate application information on it, but eventually relented today and let me look at it in their office.

Anthem's filing did not specifically reference a percentage increase from 2013 to 2014, but its average premium request for 2014 is 14.68% higher than Humana's.

The federally funded Kentucky Health Cooperative Inc. filing contained rates slightly cheaper than Anthem's.

Kentucky Governor accused of altering ObamaCare evidence

Establishment strikes back against Tea Party, again

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo escaped scrutiny for their role in Kentucky's Medicaid expansion efforts today when Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd dismissed them as defendants in a Tea Party lawsuit to halt the ObamaCare-related action.

 

 

Plaintiff David Adams expressed disappointment in the ruling, but said he wasn't surprised.

 

 

"Frankfort has gotten so far off the grid in terms of politicians acting outside their constitutionally dictated powers, I think there is great cause for concern both these men will abuse Kentuckians by trying to subvert the legal process and implement the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. Technically that's speculation but there is substantial evidence to suggest that's the direction they are headed in and once they do it we will have a horrible time getting out of the mess it will create. Kentucky voters have no recourse until there is full and open debate in both chambers and roll call votes putting everyone properly on the record. The Court wasn't ready for that argument yet because this exact argument hasn't been tried before which is a shame because legislative immunity was never intended to protect the kind of lawlessness we see here, but we will try it again and again until it works or until dragging them into court becomes unnecessary."

 

 

"Nevertheless, the case goes on and there are still procedural mechanisms we can use to protect Kentuckians from this mess," Adams said.

 

 

Adams' motion for a temporary injunction halting all state efforts in the Medicaid expansion is scheduled for July 24 in Franklin Circuit Court.

Kentucky's pusillanimous potentate, Steve Beshear

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear responded to simple discovery questions this weekend with an objection stating that he is being oppressed in his illegal effort to implement ObamaCare in the Bluegrass State.

"Plaintiffs' insistence upon answers to their discovery requests is therefore oppressive and unduly burdensome," Beshear stated through his attorney.

The questions Beshear is so afraid of include "State whether one or more employees of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, while working for or being paid by the Commonwealth, expended time on researching, preparing, typing, printing, distributing or implementing Governor Steven Beshear's Executive Order 2012-587" and "Please provide a complete copy of all contracts entered into by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for use by the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange created by Executive Order 2012-587, with any seller or distributor of Blackberry or similar cellular telephones as well as with any provider of cellular phone service."

It's certainly understandable that the Governor would be terrified. Beshear refused to answer any of eight such questions.    

More broken windows in Kentucky, with a twist

Gov. Steve Beshear announced today with great fanfare the creation of 1300 new Kentucky jobs with a company called General Dynamics. He seriously downplayed the fact these workers will fulfill the company's federal ObamaCare "customer service" contract. 

In fact, you really have to know what you are looking for to find it in the announcement at all.

Worse, the state is doling out to the company up to $11.5 million in unconstitutional tax credits and "wage assessments" against the employees.

So, if you are keeping score at home, these are 1300 federally funded call center jobs created with borrowed money to "help" people navigate the web sites set up in states who refused to set up their own ObamaCare exchanges to buy health insurance with illegal tax subsidies to avoid illegal tax penalties that was supposed to be easier to purchase than before the exchanges and the customer service providers but isn't and was supposed to be cheaper to purchase before all the new regulations, taxes, subsidies, penalties and fees but isn't while Kentucky launches a similar contract with Xerox to provide similar services here with 100 employees who won't be needed when the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange is thrown out as illegal later this year by Kentucky courts. Maybe some of those people can then go to work on the federal exchange with General Dynamics, if the law and the exchanges are still around -- which they probably won't be.

Surely it would have been easier to just break a few windows.

KY Attorney General bails out on ObamaCare fight

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway became the latest Democrat to chicken out of the fight for ObamaCare today with an announcement that he will not contest the Tea Party lawsuit challenging Frankfort's illegal Medicaid expansion.

Conway has publicly expressed an interest in running for Governor in 2015. He cited a "large volume of constitutional challenges" as reason for not coming to the aid of his party's health reform debacle.

"Obama's trainwreck is the worst kind of manmade disaster because it keeps rolling and the body count just keeps growing," said David Adams, plaintiff in the Medicaid expansion lawsuit. "Can't blame General Conway for throwing up his white flag and going into full retreat."

Don't miss Monday morning in Frankfort

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo have the same lawyer in their legal effort to escape accountability for enabling Gov. Beshear's unconstitutional Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare.

That might not work out so well for them.

Their attorney filed a motion to dismiss them from the tea party lawsuit challenging Medicaid expansion in Kentucky with ten pages of blather about legislative immunity, lack of standing and the same illegitimate whining about the mailing of court documents Beshear tried in his failed motion for the same case.

Here is part of our response:

"Defendants misconstrue the purpose for their inclusion as defendants in this suit and thereby waste precious time and space arguing for an imaginary "absolute" immunity from suit supposedly to protect the integrity of the legislative process and ensure the very survival of "direct representative democracy." Every single reference to this "absolute" immunity in case law, statute or Constitution contains qualifiers and exceptions, of which Plaintiff only requires two: "breach" and "corruption." Plaintiff alleges both."

The hearing on this matter will take place on Monday, July 15 at 9am ET in Franklin Circuit Court at 669 Chamberlain Avenue in Frankfort. Should be Courtroom #3. In any event, Judge Phillip Shepherd is presiding. Hope to see you there.
 

Kentucky ObamaCare staring at trees, misses forest

An extensive study released today by the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange inadvertently trips all over the simple truth about necessary reforms but fails to see recognize it.

The following passage from the report sums this problem up perfectly:

"The overall finding of the study is that the health care workforce issues uncovered through this report are, and will continue to be, present with or without Medicaid Expansion, KHBE, or other programs across the Commonwealth. Intervention is needed to curb the trending decline of health care workforce capacity in relation to rising population demand, and no single approach will be the panacea."

It comes as no shock to anyone that "Medicaid Expansion, KHBE or other programs" combined will have no positive impact on shortages of medical professionals in Kentucky. Far more likely, these artificial market manipulations will have a negative effect, and quite possibly a large one.

Most telling, of course, is the end of the passage stating "no single approach will be the panacea." Spoken like a government committee paid by the "approach" and paid for perpetuating problems rather than solving problems and working themselves out of their highly paid jobs.

The single approach Kentuckians are looking for -- and won't get until we demand it -- is getting government's hands out of the process completely and letting supply and demand forces work to correct the multiple market imbalances created by government regulation run amok in healthcare these last few decades.

You can read the whole report here.

Beshear owes state $7784.90 and counting...

In court documents filed yesterday, Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange Executive Director Carrie Banahan testified "The Exchange was created pursuant to an Executive Order issued by the Governor on June 19, 2013." (emphasis added)

That date is interesting, because Banahan has been the Executive Director of Kentucky's ObamaCare "exchange" at an annual salary and benefits (state benefits, paid for by you) of $142,074.50 at least since May. Banahan was hired in July of 2012 to run the exchange and it was reported at the time that she would keep her old job until a replacement was hired. That apparently happened in May 2013.

The lawsuit challenging creation of the Kentucky exchange was based on a 2012 executive order that expired ninety days after the 2013 General Assembly session ended. Beshear then replaced that order with a new one, which KRS 12.028(5) clearly states he can not do:

However you slice it Banahan is out of a job soon, since there is no legal authority to create the position she now occupies at such a high cost. Governor Beshear should be made to reimburse the state for her salary and benefits since June 19, 2013 when he issued his bogus replacement executive order. 

Another embarrassing Beshear gambit

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear must be a terrible poker player.
 

Beshear, through his attorney in his quixotic legal effort blow up Kentucky's Medicaid program with hundreds of thousands of new recipients under the ObamaCare trainwreck, has attempted weakly to trick the plaintiff in Adams v. Beshear 13-CI-605 to throw away his case on a series of lies perpetratrated by Beshear.
 

"There are no material issues of fact in dispute," Beshear's attorney, Patrick Hughes, wrote today in a proposed order. "Therefore, there will be no discovery between the parties."
 

Nice try, Governor.
 

The first material issue of fact in the case is that Beshear has taken no action to effectuate the optional ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. Beshear's attorney made this claim in court and in writing and it is false. Discovery will show that. Beshear also claimed Kentucky can back out of the Medicaid expansion if (when) we find out that we can't afford it. This is also false, a fact also to be made clear in the discovery process. Beshear's attorney just got finished claiming in court that there is no factual record for the court to consider and that he should be handed the win as a result.
 

And now he wants to shut down the case before that same relevant information is placed on record with the court.
 

"There is a fine line between being overly bold and being stupid," David Adams, plaintiff, said. "I hope the Governor thinks twice before crossing it again. His unlawful actions are bad enough and don't need to be compounded by legal shenanigans. Kentuckians should be disgusted by this behavior and I think Gov. Beshear owes us all an apology for trying to subvert justice in this embarrassing fashion."

Say "NO" to corporate welfare in Kentucky

Kentucky Citizens Judicial President David Adams filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the bulk of the Commonwealth's system of economic development.

Adams asked the court to rule "activities of government in the Commonwealth violate the plain language of the Kentucky Constitution when they treat individuals and groups of individuals differently from each other in terms of taxation, ownership or use of private property or substantial and particular benefits derived from public property."

He seeks temporary and permanent injunctions against continued proliferation of such efforts. Governor Steve Beshear and Secretary of the Cabinet for Economic Development Larry Hayes were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Adams claimed three specific statutes are unconstitutional and that government economic development "has grown to consume far more collective activity, power, attention and resources than could have been envisioned as recently as 1986."

That's the year a bill in the General Assembly proposed as an effort to attract Japanese automaker Toyota to manufacture cars in Georgetown, Kentucky granted substantial new powers to state government to control private economic activity in the Bluegrass State.

Adams said "substantial waste of state resources and centralization of power in contradicting the plain language and the clear intent of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky" made judicial action necessary.

Kentucky's illegal ObamaCare scheme takes huge hit

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled this morning against Gov. Steve Beshear's motion to dismiss the second tea party lawsuit filed against him.

Plaintiff David Adams claims the law Beshear is using to justify expanding Medicaid is unconstitutional. Beshear responded that a claim of violation of citizen rights is the same as not alleging "any injury at all."

"The record clearly shows Governor Beshear's attorney argued in court that he doesn't recognize the value of citizens' rights at all," Adams said. "The judge rejected that argument, so now we go on to see if the executive and legislative branches can keep robbing us to buy votes for themselves. I don't think they can."