Health advocate concerned how proposed Medicaid cuts could impact Kentucky

Yahoo

13-05-2025

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — The GOP cost-cutting bill has been unveiled in Washington, and billions in cuts are on the table for Medicaid.
'I think if the cuts that we are seeing in this draft legislation go through, hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians will become uninsured,' Emily Beauregard told FOX 56.
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It is shaping up to be the next big political fight in Washington, D.C., with high stakes for the Commonwealth; 31% of the state is enrolled in Medicaid—that's about 1.3 million people.
The Congressional Budget Office said as many as 8.6 million people nationwide will lose coverage over the decade under the current proposal.
'While it is expensive to cover, folks, it's a lot more expensive for people to be uninsured, to have their health deteriorate, to not be able to work because they're not healthy enough to work,' Beauregard, executive director of the policy non-profit Kentucky Voices for Health, said.
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The plan, which currently includes work reporting requirements, she argues, will create more bureaucratic churn.
'We know that 96% of Kentuckians, with Medicaid coverage, are working. They're caregivers, they're students, they're retired, or they have a disability or illness that keeps them from working,' she said. 'Every time you submit this information, it has to be processed. If it's not processed in time. You could have done everything right. You still lose your coverage. We see that happening in Kentucky today.'
Beauregard said the most recent data she's seen from the state shows at least 6 thousand households a month have to redo paperwork, and in the gap of time before it gets fixed, they sometimes go uninsured. She also worries that fewer insured people could result in rising medical debt and put added strain on rural hospitals.
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'You could see certain services being cut. You could see reimbursements being reduced. It could take many forms,' she said.
President Donald Trump reportedly wants the bill delivered to his desk by July 4.
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