Beshear Fighting Federal Government’s Move to Dismantle Essential Health Care Protections for Kentuckians
Attorney General
Beshear and a group of state attorneys general are asking a federal court to reject the
Beshear said the federal government is illegally manipulating a 1974 law - the Employment Retirement Income Security Act or ERISA - to allow the creation of association health care plans by employment groups that would offer fewer protections for Kentuckians currently in the individual and small group health insurance plans under the ACA.
"The Rule seeks to return
Since implementation of the ACA,
Beshear said that is due, in part, to the ACA stabilizing a long-term trend of declining employer-sponsored insurance coverage.
"Employer-sponsored insurance and individual market coverage make up approximately 55 percent of the insurance coverage for Kentuckians," he said. "The health benefits package afforded to these Kentuckians is essential to the public health of the Commonwealth, where prior to the ACA, 33 percent of the non-elderly population - about 881,000 Kentuckians - had a pre-existing condition."
Beshear said just as critical is the Rule's threat to employees who could lose eligibility for health care tax incentives that keep health care insurance premiums affordable.
"If the Rule allows spin-off employer association health groups that meet the ACA's requirement of minimum essential health care coverage, then employees in these groups will lose their ability to garner federal tax credits," Beshear said. "This will increase the cost of health care coverage for many Kentuckians."
Beshear said
Beshear said a major provision of the ACA allows significant and critical assistance for drug treatment, providing coverage to an additional 2.8 million Americans suffering from addiction. It requires both private plans and Medicaid to cover certain drug treatment.
"At a time when the opioid crisis is tearing our families apart, we must have treatment and recovery coverage to help our friends, family and neighbors who have fallen into addiction," Beshear said. "This coverage is essential in our ongoing fight against addiction."
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