Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insists that Kentucky’s health insurance exchange, known as Kynect, is just a website.
It isn’t.
During his debate with Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes yesterday, McConnell said he would repeal the rest of Obamacare but keep Kynect.
“Kentucky Kynect is a website. It was paid for by a grant from the federal government,” he said. “The website can continue, but in my view the best interests of the country would be achieved by pulling out Obamacare root and branch.” McConnell explained that Kentucky officials can also maintain the state exchange “if they’d like to.” “States can decide whether or to expand Medicaid or not,” he added. “It’s a state decision.”
Kynect is not just a website. It, like any other health insurance exchange, is a portal to Obamacare. Kynect cannot and would not function without the underlying mechanisms of Obamacare which enabled the creation of the exchange in the first place.
Repealing the rest of Obamacare would mean rolling back the expansion of Medicaid (which now covers hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians) and the end of subsidies. It would also mean repealing the cost control mechanisms that lower the cost of healthcare across the board. Without these provisions, Kynect would be reduced to just a website.
It’s true that choosing to expand Medicaid is a state decision, unfortunately, but they can only choose to do so because of Obamacare. Repeal Obamacare and there is no Medicaid expansion.
There’s no chance that Mitch McConnell doesn’t know better. He is lying.
If he really and truly doesn’t know better, he’s an even bigger fool than anyone fathomed. And that may be a worse explanation for him.
Would you vote for a man who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow? Maybe you would as long as he opposes that darn Obama.