After the address, former Democratic Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear gave a response in which he addressed healthcare.
Here are four things to know.
1. Mr. Beshear spoke out against dismantling the ACA. He said Republicans will “rip affordable health insurance away from millions of Americans who most need it,” according to a Politico report.
2. The former governor also referenced the working class in his response, according to the report. He said: “Behind these [Republican] ideas is the belief that folks at the lower end of the economic ladder just don’t deserve healthcare.”
3. Additionally, Mr. Beshear touted Kentucky’s successes since implementing programs established by the ACA, Politico reports. Kentucky expanded Medicaid in 2014. In the state’s first year of Medicaid expansion, Kentucky saw its uninsured rate among low-income adults drop from 40.2 percent to 23.6 percent, according to a report from The Commonwealth Fund.
4. But Mr. Beshear said Republican efforts to repeal and replace the ACA would undo some of the successes his state, and other states in the nation, have made under the ACA, Politico reports. “So far, every Republican idea to ‘replace’ the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of Americans covered, despite promises to the contrary,” he said, according to the report. “Mr. President, folks here in Kentucky expect you to keep your word. Because this isn’t a game — it’s life and death for people.”
For the full story, read Dan Diamond’s report in Politico.
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