Latest news with #LouisvilleForum
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Will Medicaid changes ‘heal or hurt?' Kentuckians disagree in Louisville debate
From left, journalist Deborah Yetter, Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions and Emily Beauregard of Kentucky Voices for Health discuss Medicaid during a gathering of the Louisville Forum, May 15, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) LOUISVILLE — As Republicans in Washington advanced a proposed Medicaid work requirement Wednesday, two Kentucky advocates speaking in Louisville disagreed on the wisdom of the policy. A House committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, approved a plan for trimming $625 billion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade that includes new copays and work and reporting requirements. The vote is an early step in moving the changes, part of a massive tax and spending bill, through both chambers of Congress. The federal Medicaid work requirement would not take effect until 2029, under the bill approved by Guthrie's House Energy and Commerce Committee during a marathon session that lasted 25 hours. U.S. House panel passes GOP plan that cuts Medicaid by $625B, adds work requirement The federal-state Medicaid program pays for almost 1 in 3 Kentuckians' health care. The Louisville Forum already was planning to host a debate around the question: Will changes to Medicaid 'heal or hurt?' after Medicaid also took center stage in Kentucky's 2025 legislative session. Deborah Yetter, a Kentucky Hall of Fame journalist who writes for the Lantern, moderated the Wednesday panel between Jim Waters, president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, and Emily Beauregard, executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health. Waters and Beauregard spent a large chunk of the debate discussing the ins and outs of Medicaid work requirements. During the legislative session Kentucky lawmakers added a mandated work requirement for Kentuckians between the ages of 18 and 60 who don't have dependents and are both 'physically and mentally able to work.' Waters said that 'there's going to be some hurt whenever you try to rein in a program that's really exploded in cost' and said Medicaid 'was intended to be for the truly disabled, indigent.' District of Columbia 38% Alaska 36% New Mexico 36% California 35% New York 34% Louisiana 34% Kentucky 31% Oregon 31% Hawaii 29% West Virginia 29% 50 states and D.C. 24% Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities 'It was not meant to be a destination,' he said. 'It was meant to help along the way.' 'Contrary to maybe what some people think, there is not an automated taxpayer machine there in Frankfort,' he said. 'I mean, taxpayers are not an endless source of resources, so resources are limited, and they need to be spent in a way that actually helps people.' Beauregard said 'we don't need work requirements for Medicaid' and said reporting requirements often lead to administrative hurdles that keep people from being able to prove their employment, such as hard-to-prove seasonal work or literacy issues. Beauregard said work requirements are 'short sighted' because 'it is a prerequisite to work that you are healthy.' 'While we do spend a decent amount of money on Medicaid, the cost of being uninsured is much greater — and it's not only greater to the individual, it's greater to our entire economy and to our health care system,' she said. For Waters, Medicaid is 'unsustainable' as it is. 'Don't we want fewer people on Medicaid? I think that should be the goal,' Waters said. 'Fewer people on Medicaid means when people are in the private workforce getting coverage from employers, are independent, are experiencing the dignity of work and effort,' he said. 'If everybody, pretty much, is working …. that's receiving Medicaid benefits now, like I've heard, and then it's a very small percentage that aren't, what's the problem with implementing a program that gets the rest of those folks onto an employer's payroll and off of the taxpayers' benefit plan.' Lawmakers have cited fraud prevention as a motivator to more thoroughly oversee and rein in Medicaid. Beauregard said 'there's very little fraud for individuals' and that fraud is 'mostly in the provider arena, and it's not widespread.' 'Individuals aren't able to take advantage of their Medicaid coverage for nonmedical purposes,' she said. 'You can't take your Medicaid card and use it to purchase groceries or go on a vacation. Very few people are getting a root canal for the fun of it.' Waters believes 'there's more fraud that we even know right now' and called on the newly established Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board to 'be aggressive in looking at what fraud is happening and the extent of it.' 'Taxpayers deserve to know what that is, and to have somebody looking at that,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘The good, the bad, the ugly': Legislative leaders from Louisville critique 2025 session
Democratic Sen. David Yates, left, and Republican Rep. Jason Nemes shared their views on the 2025 legislative session with the Louisville Forum Wednesday. (LRC Public Information photos) LOUISVILLE — Two Kentucky legislative leaders — one Republican, the other a Democrat — offered sharply divergent views of the 2025 legislative session that ended March 28. 'It's the good, the bad and the ugly and that's the truth,' said Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, the Senate minority whip, speaking at Wednesday's monthly meeting of the Louisville Forum, a nonpartisan public interest group. Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown and House majority whip, had a different take on accomplishments of the Kentucky General Assembly, where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers. 'I think this was the second-best session in the history of Kentucky,' Nemes said, adding it was surpassed only by legislative accomplishments of last year, when lawmakers enacted a new, two-year budget. Nemes was elected to leadership in November 2022. The one-hour session moderated by WHAS11 reporter Isaiah Kim-Martinez at times grew animated as the lawmakers discussed legislation affecting taxes, Medicaid, abortion, transgender medical care, the environment and the need for more transparency in legislative proceedings where bills sometimes are subject to last-minute revisions. The Kentucky League of Women Voters and other outside groups have criticized Kentucky lawmakers for routine 'fast-track' maneuvers that provide little to no time for public scrutiny. 'We need to do better,' Nemes acknowledged. 'I'm not making excuses. We could do better.' Yates agreed, saying changes to bills came through so fast on the final days of the legislative session that copies were still hot from the copying machine. Lawmakers should do better, possibly by making changes available immediately on the legislative website, he said. 'The technology is there,' Yates said, adding that as a member of leadership, he found himself trying to explain last-minute changes to Senate Democrats even while the vote was underway. 'I think we could definitely do better.' Yates also criticized the 2025 session for focusing too much on cultural issues including banning Medicaid coverage for transgender health services; limiting such care for inmates; and cancelling Gov. Andy Beshear's restriction on 'conversion therapy,' a controversial practice aimed at gay youth that Yates called 'barbaric.' Lawmakers also enacted, over Beshear's veto, House Bill 4 banning diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, measures at public colleges and universities. Yates called them 'distraction bills,' adding, 'We should focus on legislation that moves Kentucky forward.' Critics have referred to such measures as 'hate bills.' Nemes disputed the critics' characterization. 'There were no hate bills this session,' he said. Limits on public funds for transgender services were simply meant to ensure no 'taxpayer dollars' would be used for such care — not as an attack on the small fraction of Kentuckians who identify as transgender, he said. 'If you're a transgender person, I want happiness for you,' Nemes said. 'I love you and I want you to be very successful.' As for conversion therapy, licensing boards for professionals such as psychologists and social workers can establish standards to prevent conversion therapy if they choose, Nemes said. KY doctors say GOP lawmakers' attempt to clarify abortion ban confuses instead Other issues the two touched on include a last-minute addition to a bill to attempt to define when physicians can perform emergency abortions. Abortion is banned by state law except to save the life or prevent disabling injury to a pregnant person. Nemes defended changes he made to House Bill 90, his bill that also allows free-standing birth centers. It adds to state law a list of certain conditions under which doctors can legally end a pregnancy, such as hemorrhage or ectopic pregnancies, but critics have said it still leaves pregnant patients at risk and doctors at risk of prosecution. Nemes disagreed with criticism of the changes to state abortion law he acknowledged were rushed through. 'We got it done and I'm proud of it,' he said. 'I'm not proud of the process but we got it done.' Yates, a lawyer who handles personal injury cases, said he's still not sure the changes would protect physicians or pregnant women. 'Everyone hopes that is the case,' he said. 'We'll see.' As for other accomplishments, Nemes cited House Bill 775, a sweeping measure changed late in the session to include changes to Kentucky's tax law and make it easier to lower Kentucky's income tax, an ongoing effort by Republican lawmakers. It also includes economic incentives for Louisville aimed at downtown development, Nemes said. 'We're putting our money where our mouth is,' Nemes said. 'I am very bullish on the General Assembly and how it's treating Louisville.' Yates said the legislature needs to proceed with caution as it works to cut the state income tax. 'In the event it goes down to zero,' he said, 'I promise there will be other taxes.'
