Health News
- Obamacare Seems To Be No Plus For Kentucky Democrats, Perhaps Mainly Because Of The Word's First Three Syllables
Though the federal health-reform law has helped cover more than half a million Kentuckians and cut the state's uninsured population by half, "there is little evidence it will help" Kentucky Democrats in the Nov. 4 elections, reports Abby Goodnough...
- Grimes And Mcconnell Lay Out Differences On Health Reform
By Al Cross and Megan Ingros Kentucky Health News U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell kept attacking federal health-care reform and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes gave her strongest defense of it yet as the candidates held the closest thing to a debate Wednesday,...
- Obamacare Hearing Highlights Employers' Worry And Uncertainty; Yarmuth Says Repeal And Defunding Bids Block Needed Changes
Three of Kentucky's congressmen agreement at a field hearing in Lexington Tuesday that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act needs changing, but had no a consensus on how it should be fixed. ? From left, U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth,...
- Medicaid Managed-care Firm Files Suit, Alleging The State's Rush Job Resulted In Unreliable Financial Information For Bidders
Medicaid managed-care company Kentucky Spirit alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that Gov. Steve Beshear so hurriedly privatized the service last year that he gave incorrect cost information to the bidders. The company said it relied on the bad information...
- Pill-mill Bill Causing Problems For Patients Who Have Long-term Prescriptions: Expensive Drug-screening Tests
In July, Kentucky started making long-time holders of certain controlled-substances prescriptions submit to urine tests to determine if they were actually taking the drugs, rather than selling them. Because insurance companies don't consider...
Health News
Claims that health-reform law is putting Kentuckians out of work don't hold up to scrutiny, economic experts say
"Key Republicans running for election Nov. 4 say the federal Affordable Care Act is putting Kentuckians out of work, but employment data and interviews with Kentucky-based economists suggest otherwise," John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The objects of Cheves's scrutiny are a television commercial for U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, saying Democratic challenger Elisabeth Jensen "supports Obamacare, which has decimated Kentucky jobs," and an opinion piece, by Sen. Mitch McConnell saying "There are so many stories about businesses holding back from expanding or hiring ? or even cutting back on their workforces ? it's hard to even count."
McConnell's anecdotal assertion proves nothing, and Barr's appears to be false. Cheves notes that Kentucky has gained 3,600 health-care jobs during the last year and quotes experts: Manoj Shanker, an economist at the state Office of Employment and Training, who said the law "is expected to be a net gain for the economy . . . and not just for doctors and nurses. It will mean the creation of jobs in other areas, including clerical staff for processing claims, more receptionists, more pharmacy technicians and clerks, more janitors, orderlies and ambulance drivers."
Glen Mays, a University of Kentucky public-health professor who studies health economics, told Cheves, "I think the law is definitely going to stimulate the health-care segment of our local economies, especially where we've seen substantial drops in the numbers of people who are uninsured. People who were forgoing medical care because they did not have insurance now can access it."
The objects of Cheves's scrutiny are a television commercial for U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, saying Democratic challenger Elisabeth Jensen "supports Obamacare, which has decimated Kentucky jobs," and an opinion piece, by Sen. Mitch McConnell saying "There are so many stories about businesses holding back from expanding or hiring ? or even cutting back on their workforces ? it's hard to even count."
McConnell's anecdotal assertion proves nothing, and Barr's appears to be false. Cheves notes that Kentucky has gained 3,600 health-care jobs during the last year and quotes experts: Manoj Shanker, an economist at the state Office of Employment and Training, who said the law "is expected to be a net gain for the economy . . . and not just for doctors and nurses. It will mean the creation of jobs in other areas, including clerical staff for processing claims, more receptionists, more pharmacy technicians and clerks, more janitors, orderlies and ambulance drivers."
Glen Mays, a University of Kentucky public-health professor who studies health economics, told Cheves, "I think the law is definitely going to stimulate the health-care segment of our local economies, especially where we've seen substantial drops in the numbers of people who are uninsured. People who were forgoing medical care because they did not have insurance now can access it."
- Obamacare Seems To Be No Plus For Kentucky Democrats, Perhaps Mainly Because Of The Word's First Three Syllables
Though the federal health-reform law has helped cover more than half a million Kentuckians and cut the state's uninsured population by half, "there is little evidence it will help" Kentucky Democrats in the Nov. 4 elections, reports Abby Goodnough...
- Grimes And Mcconnell Lay Out Differences On Health Reform
By Al Cross and Megan Ingros Kentucky Health News U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell kept attacking federal health-care reform and challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes gave her strongest defense of it yet as the candidates held the closest thing to a debate Wednesday,...
- Obamacare Hearing Highlights Employers' Worry And Uncertainty; Yarmuth Says Repeal And Defunding Bids Block Needed Changes
Three of Kentucky's congressmen agreement at a field hearing in Lexington Tuesday that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act needs changing, but had no a consensus on how it should be fixed. ? From left, U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth,...
- Medicaid Managed-care Firm Files Suit, Alleging The State's Rush Job Resulted In Unreliable Financial Information For Bidders
Medicaid managed-care company Kentucky Spirit alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that Gov. Steve Beshear so hurriedly privatized the service last year that he gave incorrect cost information to the bidders. The company said it relied on the bad information...
- Pill-mill Bill Causing Problems For Patients Who Have Long-term Prescriptions: Expensive Drug-screening Tests
In July, Kentucky started making long-time holders of certain controlled-substances prescriptions submit to urine tests to determine if they were actually taking the drugs, rather than selling them. Because insurance companies don't consider...