'Attack on rural America': Kentucky Gov. Beshear rails against health care changes seen under 'BBB'

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear appeared on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, where the governor railed against changes to Medicaid that will be seen under the "Big Beautiful Bill" that was newly signed into law this past week."Well, this law is devastating," Beshear said. "It's the single worst piece of legislation I've seen in my lifetime, and it is a congressional Republican and presidential attack on rural America. In my state alone, 200,000 people are going to lose their coverage. Those are 200,000 Kentuckians that deserve to see a doctor when they're sick — 20,000 health care workers are going to lose their jobs, and we've got up to 35 rural hospitals that are typically the second biggest employer in their communities that may close their doors and what that means, is our economy takes a huge hit. And then, whether you have private insurance or Medicaid, if you live in rural America, you have to drive hours just to see the doctor that used to be in your community. It is awful and that is before we even talk about the cuts to SNAP, which means that seniors and children will go hungry at night and wake up hungry in the morning. I cannot believe that Congress was willing to pass this, I mean, it's awful."Beshear was then asked by CNN host Dana Bash if a provision added into the "Big Beautiful Bill" that seeks to help bail out rural hospitals that experience funding shortages as a result of the Medicaid cuts."No," Beshear responded. "Based on the massive cuts that are here, based on the fact that a rural hospital may have 40% or 50% of their revenue coming from Medicaid. This will not help to keep those doors open, and so what you're going to first see are rural hospitals cutting specialties. You may have to drive several hours just to give birth in many parts of this country, and just think about how the economic hit to these communities go. You lose 200 jobs from doctors and nurses and orderlies and all of a sudden, the coffee shop does worse, the bank doesn't have as many folks coming in. I mean, this is going to hit rural America right in the face."Bash then highlighted the governor's former repeal of work requirements in 2019 that the state of Kentucky had previously attempted to implement for Medicaid under former Gov. Matt Bevin. In doing so, Bash asked Beshear why he disagreed with work requirement provisions for Medicaid, which will now be implemented nationwide in the "Big Beautiful Bill.""Well, we want everybody that can work to work," Beshear said. "And right now in Kentucky, we have the most people working, the most jobs filled, and the largest workforce in our history, and that is with our current Medicaid structure. That's because these work requirements really aren't about getting people back to work. They are about increasing the paperwork on everybody. That's the seniors — because 70% of our long-term care costs are covered by Medicaid — and that's children as well, with half of Kentucky's kids covered by Medicaid. These work requirements aren't just for specific people; everybody else also has to check all the boxes saying they're not able-bodied. And what happens is when someone misses that one box, they are kicked off for six months or more, meaning families have to take that parent or grandparent in. It means they have to cover all those other costs. All this is is more red tape meant to kick people who should get Medicaid off of Medicaid."Bash then asked Beshear to respond to comments from her preceding guest on State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said "that Democrats think poor people are stupid," with Bessent contending that most people on Medicaid support the changes to the program seen within the "Big Beautiful Bill.""It's amazing," said Beshear, who could be seen shaking his head. "Listen, I know a lot of people on Medicaid. These are parents with special needs children that could have never covered it otherwise. These are busy people all working two jobs already to support that child. And now, if they miss a deadline, if they miss checking a box, look at what happens. I mean, you can lie all you want about what's in this bill. But the numbers are the numbers. The predictions by the Congressional Budget Office are there. It's going to devastate rural healthcare, all while adding trillions of dollars to our national debt. And it's going to upend every state budget across the country. You know, what's sad? Is while Democratic governors are speaking out, we're not speaking out because we're Democrats. We're speaking out because we're supposed to be the best governors of our states that we can be. All these Republican governors that aren't saying a thing, where their rural hospitals are going to close, where they're going to see massive layoffs and people lose their coverage, that's pretty sad. You know, our jobs, is to stand up and represent our people, and I wish people would get back to that."Studies have shown that Kentucky stands to be one of the states most disproportionately impacted by cuts to Medicaid, with as many as 276,000 people across the state who are likely to lose coverage from the program under the "Big Beautiful Bill." Specifically, among rural areas in particular, no other state — by far — is projected to be impacted as much as Kentucky, with as much as $12.3 billion projected to be removed from funding rural residents' health care coverage in the state. The state with the second most among of projected funding loss among rural residents — North Carolina — is only expected to see a funding loss of $7.49 billion. This is despite Kentucky having a substantially smaller population than North Carolina and the other states of Virginia, Illinois, and New York that round out the top five of the list.