With BBB now law, what are leaders, experts saying about Kentucky Medicaid impacts

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Now that President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill is signed into law, many are waiting to see what the real impacts will be on several programs, including Medicaid.

“In my state alone, 200,000 people are going to lose their coverage,” Gov. Andy Beshear said during a CNN interview on Sunday.

“People who cannot work—that is what the safety net is designed for,” Rep. Andy Barr told FOX 56 in an interview ahead of the bill’s final passage.

There are very different outcomes both sides are saying the bill will have on Kentucky, especially for the roughly 28% of the state’s population that rely on Medicaid; that’s about 1.2 million people.

“What this bill does is actually strengthen Medicaid for my constituents who really need Medicaid and the people who Medicaid was designed for—so the disabled, the dual eligible, elderly, children,” Barr said.

Barr, who voted for the bill, argues the new law will prevent abuse of the program and encourage able-bodied workers to get insurance through an employer.

“We continue to work with our rural hospitals and the Senate, put an important provision in, a rural hospital, transformational, stabilization fund,’ he said.

“Based on the fact that a rural hospital may have 40% or 50% of its revenue coming from Medicaid. This will not help to keep those doors open. And so, what you’re going to first see are rural hospitals cutting specialties,” Beshear said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.  

A study by KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, indicates the rural health fund may only partially offset reduced federal Medicaid spending in rural areas by about 1/3 of the projected cut, about $50 billion. The same study also found Kentucky will lose more than any other state in federal Medicaid money at $12.3 billion over ten years.

A joint letter to Congress from the Kentucky Hospital Association echoed concerns over extreme service cuts or complete ends to programs at many of the state’s rural hospitals. In the letter, KHA explained that by capping Medicaid state-directed payments, it would reduce funding by a projected 90 percent from $5 billion to $450 million. The KHA said hospitals will have no choice but to eliminate services and cut positions.