John Yarmuth: “Kentucky has been a national model for the Affordable Care Act. In the first 6 months of Kentucky Kynect, the State…”

“Kentucky has been a national model for the Affordable Care Act. In the first 6 months of Kentucky Kynect, the State exchange created by the law, we enrolled nearly 415,000 Kentuckians in new health coverage. That is one in 10 Kentuckians and nearly half our previously uninsured population; but rather than help inform his constituents of life-saving options now available to them, Senator Mitch McConnell has spent the past 4 years working to repeal that coverage while misleading Kentuckians about the law. Now, he is suggesting Kynect's overwhelming success can remain, even if he succeeds in repealing the law that created it. That couldn't be more disconnected from the truth. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, more than 300,000 Kentuckians covered through the law's expansion of Medicaid would lose their coverage. Insurers would no longer be required to cover preexisting conditions, and private plans through Kynect would become unaffordable for most Kentucky families. Mr. Speaker, health reform has been so successful in Kentucky that Mitch McConnell now says we should keep Kynect, but his claim that we can keep Kynect and still repeal the Affordable Care Act is as absurd as it is disingenuous, and our constituents deserve to know that. ____________________”