Ky. Gov. Matt Bevin: ’50 Percent of Our Counties Use Only a Single Health Care Provider’
by Melanie Arter CNSnews:
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said Monday that it’s ironic that his predecessor, former Gov. Steve Beshear, will be giving the Democratic response to the president’s State of the Union address, because Beshear oversaw “a remarkable decline in access to health care coverage” in the state.
“The fact that my predecessor, who ironically will be giving a follow-up to the president’s address, it’s an interesting choice frankly, because he unilaterally chose to expand Medicaid in Kentucky, then rolled hundreds of thousands of people, and that result of it has been a remarkable decline in access to health care coverage,” Bevin said.
“More people covered, but covered by what? Fewer people able actually to even see a doctor. Fifty percent of our counties use only a single health care provider on the coverage front. There are only three now in the entire state – only one that covers the entire state,” he said.
Bevin was one of several Republican governors who spoke to reporters at the White House on the heels of the president’s speech to the National Governors Association about repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Bevin called Obamacare “an unmitigated disaster” that “has not been successful anywhere, including in Kentucky.”
“The whole point of health care coverage is of no value if you don’t create better health outcome,” he said.
“There will be a repeal. There will be a replacement, but it’s not lost on those governors here. It’s not lost on our president and our vice president. It’s not lost on this administration and Secretary Price or on any governor that I’m aware of, that you simply can’t remove something without being thoughtful as to what will come in its place,” Bevin said.
“And there has been an inordinate amount of discussion on that front, and it has been had specifically, so that we understand we want better health outcome. Simply providing coverage – and that’s something I would challenge you all to realize – it’s not purely about coverage. It’s about access to and the receipt of health care so that folks have better health outcomes,” he said.
