Obamacare Forcing Cuts and Layoffs in Kentucky Hospitals

While Kentucky has gained national prominence as the only Southern state to fully embrace Obamacare, its hospitals say the law has left them facing billions of dollars in cuts and forced them to lay off staff, shut down services and worry for their financial health, and in some cases, survival.

Nurse Marie Honeycutt, right, takes paperwork from 

Tonia McDonald in the Norton Hospital Emergency Room 

last June. Emergency Rooms have seen a rise in patient 

visits in the wake of the passing of the ACA.

(Photo: Alton Strupp/The Courier-Journal)

The Kentucky Hospital Association outlined its concerns in a report released Friday called "Code Blue," saying payment cuts to hospitals are expected to reach nearly $7 billion through 2024. "Kentucky hospitals will lose more money under the Affordable Care Act than they gain in revenue from expanded coverage," it said, experiencing a net loss of $1 billion by 2020.

"This report provides the real picture of what our hospitals are facing," association President Mike Rust said during a news conference at the Lexington Convention Center, where the group was holding its annual convention. While the Medicaid expansion has given many residents health coverage that has brought new money into hospitals, "the rest of the story is the cuts."

Hospitals are suffering a net loss, officials said, partly because about three-quarters of newly insured Kentuckians signed up for Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals less than it costs to treat patients. Nationally, the Congressional Budget Office projected half of newly insured patients would have private insurance. But Kentucky is a poor state, so most people who signed up for Obamacare have qualified for expanded Medicaid, which covers those earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $33,000 for a family of four.

Meanwhile, state health officials, and Gov. Steve Beshear, continue to tout the benefits of the ACA — including the state's decision to expand Medicaid. More than half a million Kentuckians got coverage through the state's insurance exchange, called kynect.

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