Former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin is out of office and with him goes one of his signature policies that may have had a significant role in his defeat at the hands of newly-elected Governor Andy Beshear.
Governor Beshear signed an executive order yesterday afternoon to officially roll back the work requirements and fees imposed on the state's Medicaid program under Bevin.
In one of his first major moves as the 63rd governor of Kentucky, Beshear signed an executive order Monday rescinding Bevin’s Kentucky HEALTH plan, which sought to impose strict work requirements for able-bodied, working-age adults. It would have ended health coverage for an estimated 95,000 Kentuckians.
“Rescinding this waiver is not only the right thing to do, it is the moral, faith-driven thing to do,” Beshear said. [...]
Flanked by staff, health care advocates and community members, Beshear’s announcement came on his sixth day in office, fulfilling a campaign promise to do away with Bevin’s Medicaid waiver in his first week. The order goes into effect immediately.
I don't have a problem with Beshear leaning on his "faith" in repealing the requirements but, in more practical terms, Bevin's program was a wasteful, big government boondoggle.
The state spent many millions of dollars developing the administration of a program to monitor the state's poor population. That included a program to track employment and those seeking employment and a separate rewards points program that would have granted specific health coverage, such as access to dental coverage, based on personal behavior and progress.
Bevin's program was everything Republicans have pretended to hate about "government run health care," or whatever, and it was enabled by the Trump regime which granted the federal waivers necessary for Bevin to engage in this massive social-engineering project.
And make no mistake, that's exactly what this was. It was a conservative social-engineering project in which Big Government would micromanage the employment and health of a significant portion of the state's residents; a state where about one third of the entire population is covered by Medicaid.
Elections have consequences and, in this case, the consequences were good. Electing Democrats is good for your state and the country even if they're far from perfect Democrats. Even conservative Democrats are better than Republicans who will sign your life over to the devil and smile while doing it.