Appointments at this Kentucky dental clinic down by half after Bevin’s Medicaid cuts
Her calendar showed five and a half hours of vacancies -- an usual sight for Clark, who normally fills her schedule with as many as three patients an hour. But since last week, when Gov.
If not, Healthy Smiles could be in big financial trouble.
"It's gonna hurt us," Clark-Boyd said. "I just hope it gets resolved."
The hardest part, Clark-Boyd said, is telling patients, such as
Joseph called Healthy Smiles Tuesday to ask about her appointment later this month, when she was supposed to get a tooth extracted. Joseph said she knew her Medicaid benefits were changing, but she didn't realize Bevin had eliminated her dental and vision coverage until she spoke with the staff.
"I cant understand why (Bevin) would cut it when most Kentuckians are on poverty level anyway," Joseph said. "Why can't he understand that dental insurance is just as important as medical?"
Joseph works at Wal-Mart part-time. She said her hours fluctuate, so she never knows exactly how much she'll make each week.
Now she doesn't know when she'll be able to get her tooth pulled.
"I don't mind paying the premium," she said. "Even if the premiums became higher, I wouldn't mind that. The question is, am I going to be able to pay for it out-of-pocket?"
On Tuesday morning, Clark-Boyd made the drive to
At the beginning of July, Bevin announced he would eliminate dental and vision coverage for some 460,000 Kentuckians after a federal judge rejected the governor's plan to overhaul the state's Medicaid program by requiring recipients to work or volunteer and pay monthly premiums. Those affected are people who received Medicaid under an expansion ordered by former Gov.
Dental and vision benefits for children and pregnant women have not been changed.
The Republican governor blamed the judge for the cuts, calling them an "unfortunate consequence" of the ruling, and saying the rollbacks in coverage were necessary to save money.
Critics have questioned the legality of Bevin's decision, saying the state did not provide an adequate time for public comments on the changes and did not follow the federal government's reporting requirements.
Democratic lawmakers criticized both the moral and economic impacts of Bevin's decision, saying it unnecessarily strips health care benefits from working families and could hurt the state's economy, particularly in
Harris called the cuts a "mean-spirited attack on
According to a report from the liberal-leaning
From 2013 to 2016,
"Those of us that live here understand that we had a downturn in the coal economy, and it costs us thousands of jobs," Adkins said. "The industry that we have seen in our region that has actually been able to grow some, to be able to invest in its infrastructure, to be able to provide quality health care throughout our region, has been the health care industry because of the expansion of Medicaid."
The letter also asks the cabinet to share any analysis it has that shows the state will save money from the cuts.
In
"Let's get this right," Collins said. "People's lives are dependent on it."
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