Kentucky’s highest-ranking Democratic lawmaker says language in the state’s budget that attempts to pull funding for the Affordable Care Act won’t kill the program.
Kentucky is set to begin paying a portion of the cost for expanded Medicaid and the health-insurance exchange in 2017. Provisions in the recently-passed state budget bar state money from going toward the program.
But House Speaker Greg Stumbo says it's largely symbolic.
“We know that that would have been probably something that we’d still been there debating, and so after reviewing the language and reviewing the governor’s implementation of what we call ‘Beshear Care,’ we didn’t feel like that this language would be egregious to the governor in moving forward," he says.
The governor’s office spearheaded Kentucky’s implementation of the ACA, but has declined to comment on the budget language.
Portions of the exchange will be funded by fees on insurers beginning next year.
