Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky was the first governor to be granted a waiver to allow him to humiliate and badger low-income people trying to get health care. From now on, anyone on Medicaid or applying for it in the state with have to prove either that they are too infirm to work or have school or care-taking obligations that preclude it. Note that Bevin could simply have ended the state's participation in Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, but that would have been easy. It wouldn't have forced poor people to grovel before him for their health insurance.
But now, because that wasn't mean and spiteful enough he's, upped the ante and issued a remarkable executive order saying he will take all Medicaid expansion away if a court alters his work requirements. That amounts to little more than extortion. "Sue me over this," he's threatening, "and I'll take more people's health care away." There have been no suits filed yet.
Gov. Matt Bevin has issued an executive order that would strip Medicaid coverage from nearly half a million Kentuckians should his proposed overhaul of the federal-state health plan be struck down in court. […]
[S]everal advocacy groups have said some of the changes—such as requiring some "able-bodied" adults to work or volunteer at least 20 hours a week—likely will be challenged in court because they violate federal law that establishes Medicaid purely as a health program and does not authorize work requirements. […]
"Is the Governor of Kentucky saying that if he is caught doing something illegal, he will take health care away from hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians who have done nothing wrong?" asked Leonardo Cuello, director of health policy for the National Health Law Program.
That's exactly what the governor of Kentucky is saying. He won't be punished alone for his illegal activities: he'll take half a million people down with him. Because of course he will. He's a Republican.
