Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin says Obamacare not working—70 percent of Kentuckians disagree

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/11/1459192/-Kentucky-Governor-Matt-Bevin-says-Obamacare-not-working-70-of-Kentuckians-disagree

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 72 percent of all Kentuckians want to keep Medicaid the same, opposing Gov. Matt Bevin’s calls to repeal or change the program in Kentucky. Kentucky is rare among southern states in that leadership under Democratic former Gov. Steve Beshear chose to expand Medicaid to cover low-income healthy adults and run the state health insurance marketplace. The innovative program used re-branding (changing its state marketplace name to Kynect) to market to citizens who demonstrated an aversion to “Obamacare,” but less so to its central policies.

Bevin ran on a platform to dismantle Kynect and roll back the Medicaid expansion and won handily in November’s election. However, his constituents now oppose some of these core policy points. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey:

The poll finds that Kentuckians are divided, leaning negative in their views of the ACA in general (41 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable), but they feel more positively about the two biggest ways the law has played out in their state. Over six in ten (63 percent) have a favorable view of the Medicaid expansion, and more have a favorable than an unfavorable view of Kynect (42 percent versus 28 percent, with 29 percent saying they don’t know enough to say). Asked about next steps, more than seven in ten residents (72 percent) say they would prefer to keep the state’s Medicaid program as it is today rather than change it to cover fewer people. One in five (20 percent) would prefer to scale back the program so that fewer people are covered. When it comes to the health insurance marketplace, about half (52 percent) want the new governor to keep Kynect, while roughly a quarter (26 percent) would prefer to switch to the federal marketplace and 18 percent aren’t sure. As in the nation as a whole, Kentuckians’ views on the ACA and its provisions divide sharply along party lines. However, when it comes to Medicaid, even 54 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of those who say they voted for Governor Bevin would prefer to keep Medicaid as it is today rather than scale it back to cover fewer people.

The survey also shows the general effectiveness of the re-brand, noting disapproval for policies known as “Obamacare” or the “Affordable Care Act” but approval for Kynect and the Medicaid expansion, two policies that are a part of the ACA.

[msongs]

1. repubs should do the right thing and quit taking KyNect, ACA, medicare and SS - act on their

values and reject those darn socialist programs

[Dawson Leery]

3. +1,000,000

[JI7]

2. too bad they voted for him because of his support for Kim Davis

[krawhitham]

5. +1,000,000

[0rganism]

4. hmm, maybe next time KY will vote to preserve its assets

oh who am i kidding? some other social injustice warrior will come forth to pose as a martyr and hand the election to the dismantlers

[Eric J in MN]

6. He won because people were upset that Kim Davis

...the anti-gay marriage clerk, went to jail.

I doubt Matt Bevin will be able to get any votes out of the issue of gay-marriage when he runs for re-election.