Paul’s Warning
They also talked to U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, both Kentucky Republicans. Paul warned this month against efforts to repeal Obamacare without replacing it, a move that could cost 32 million Americans their health insurance in coming years.
“In general, they don’t like it, but do like the fact that their constituents are healthier than they were last year,” Rabkin said.
McConnell declined to comment. Paul told MSNBC on Friday that he plans to unveil his Obamacare replacement bill next week.
Others also are calling for caution. Republican governors, while remaining publicly committed to ending Obamacare, are telling their congressional delegations that repealing the health-care law without an adequate replacement would ravage budgets and swamp hospitals with the uninsured.
Pioneered by Pence
Bevin’s waiver approach was pioneered in Pence’s Indiana with help from Verma. It became the new Medicare administrator’s consulting firm’s trademark, circulating widely among gubernatorial Republicans wanting to get expansion dollars without appearing to coddle the poor.
Kentucky’s version, still funded by taxpayers, imposes monthly premiums of $1 to $15, depending on income, which then would be allowed to rise annually. Beneficiaries would have a $1,000 per year deductible funded by the state. Most would have to work or volunteer for 20 hours a month to get their coverage.
The requirements, according to the state’s application, will teach the poor how the private insurance market works in preparation for the day when they get good jobs with benefits, which the work or volunteering mandate will help them do.
Bevin had no choice, said Jim Waters, president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank in Lexington, Kentucky, that opposes Obamacare and cheered Bevin’s campaign promise to end expanded Medicaid.