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This is Governor Steve Beshear ... About Kentucky.
Kentucky has an unprecedented opportunity to improve the health of our citizens.
In the single-most important decision in our lifetime for the long term health of Kentuckians,
I recently announced Kentucky will include 308,000 more Kentuckians in the federal Medicaid
health insurance program.
The expansion -- in accordance with the federal Affordable Care Act -- will help hundreds
of thousands of Kentucky families, dramatically improve the state's health, create nearly
17,000 new jobs and have a $15.6 billion positive economic impact on the state.
Some have questioned whether we can afford to expand Medicaid. After our review, it's
clear. We cannot afford not to expand it.
In fact, failing to act will actually cost the state more money.
We spent months studying the possible impacts to citizen health, the state budget, workforce
and economic development.
Research has found that extending reliable, quality health coverage to hundreds of thousands
of uninsured Kentuckians will improve our state's health, boost our economy, create
thousands of new jobs and have a positive economic impact on our state.
That comes with the guarantee the federal government would cover the entire cost for
the first three years.
Kentucky's known for dismal rankings in multiple measures of citizens' health. In 2012, Kentucky's
overall health ranking was 44th. In rankings for heart disease and cancer, Kentucky sits
right at the bottom. Our rates of diabetes, colon cancer, smoking and obesity are also
among the worst in the nation.
Expanding Medicaid to Kentucky's working poor will give hundreds of thousands of people
the security of reliable medical care and it will save Kentucky taxpayers millions of
dollars in the long run.
It was not a decision we took lightly, but given the enormous benefits to the health
of our people and to the taxpayers' bottom line, expanding health care became an easy
choice to make.
This is Governor Steve Beshear ... About Kentucky.