Seniors In Kentucky Need Coverage For Eyes And Teeth, No?

In July, 2015, Alan Grayson introduced a bill, H.R. 3308, Seniors Have Eyes, Ears, and Teeth Act. It was a short, easily understood piece of legislation, an amendment to the Expansion of Medicare Coverage: "To expand Medicare coverage to include eyeglasses, hearing aids, and dental care." Sounds good to me, as it did in 2015. If Grayson gets back into Congress and the Democrats win back both houses of Congress, this bill will be on Trump's desk. If he vetoes it, he'll have to explain that to the American people and then, in 2020, it will be on the desk of Bernie or whomever follows Trump into the White House. But in Kentucky, Governor Bevin got it ass-backwards.

Monday, Deborah Yetter reported for the Louisville Courier Journal that Kentucky's right-wing governor had "abruptly cut Medicaid dental and vision benefits to nearly half a million Kentuckians after Bevin's Medicaid overhaul plan was rejected Friday by a federal judge. Bevin's sweeping Medicaid plan would have requiried "some Kentuckians to work or volunteer at least 20 hours a week and meet other requirements, including paying monthly premiums to keep health coverage."

The judge vacated Bevin's entire plan and sent it back to officials at the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services for further review, saying the Trump administration, in reviewing the plan, didn't consider the basic provisions of federal Medicaid law.

The ruling followed a legal challenge on behalf of Kentucky Medicaid beneficiaries who argued the changes are outside the scope of federal Medicaid law, designed as a safety-net program to provide health coverage to low-income, vulnerable citizens.

...Bevin, who was elected in 2015, has been highly critical of the Medicaid expansion enacted by his predecessor, Democrat Steve Beshear.

Medicaid, an $11 billion health plan in Kentucky, covers about 1.4 million people, more than 600,000 of them children. The federal government provides about 80 percent of the money for Kentucky's Medicaid program.

Healthcare advocates condemned Bevin's quick move as "rash" and possibly illegal.

The Trump regime has been encouraging states to impose work requirements and other changes on health insurance programs for poor and disabled people. Judge Boasberg's ruling is a blow to The GOP's plans, at least for now. Bevin's radical reaction was almost revenge against poor people for the ruling. His diktat goes into effect immediately and he tried blaming it on the judged. "They no longer have access to dental and vision coverage as a result of the court's ruling."

One Democrat pointed out that people are "showing up for dental appointments that they made months ago and neither they nor the providers are really certain what the rules are. And that's just unacceptable for government to be operating this way."