Statement by Executive Director Jason Bailey on Senate health repeal bill:
“The Senate promised to start over on health care, but the bill introduced today doubles down on the disastrous ideas contained in the House’s American Health Care Act. At its core, the bill takes health coverage away from millions of Americans in order to provide enormous tax cuts to the wealthy. The Senate bill would worsen the House bill’s devastating cuts to Medicaid — which covers one in three Kentuckians — jeopardizing coverage for even more low-income people, kids, people with disabilities and seniors.
No state has more to lose from this bill than Kentucky because no state has achieved more in the last few years thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The bill would reduce Kentuckians’ health, harm the state’s most vulnerable and set us further back on fighting Kentucky’s opioid crisis. It will result in less coverage at higher cost, especially for poorer, older and sicker people. It will also lead to substantial job loss at hospitals and doctors’ offices and weaken Kentucky’s rural economies in particular.
Health coverage and care are essential to building thriving communities across the commonwealth. It’s now clear the Senate bill is a massive threat to that goal.”
