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Where jobs are scarce, over 1 million people could dodge Trump’s Medicaid work rules
By Phil Galewitz, KFF Health News September 29, 2025 Millions of Medicaid enrollees may have a way out of the new federal work requirement — if they live in a county with high unemployment. By January 2027, President Donald Trump’s far-reaching domestic policy law will require many adult, nondisabled Medicaid enrollees in 42 states and
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Medicaid renewals for children begin July 1 after a five-year pause
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Starting July 1, Kentucky families must once again complete annual Medicaid renewals for their children, following a five-year pause on the requirement that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change will impact more than 600,000 Kentucky children who are covered by Medicaid and the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program,
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Coalition: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will result in ‘deep’ safety net cuts; proposed cuts to provider taxes are harmful
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS A coalition that works to meet the basic needs of Kentuckians provided an update June 17 on state and federal policies that impact the state’s safety net programs, with much of the discussion focusing on how the U.S. House-passed budget reconciliation bill would harm such programs. Emily Beauregard, executive
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Many Kentuckians qualify for dual-needs health coverage
BY NADIA RAMLAGAN KY NEWS CONNECTION Nearly 13 million people nationwide, including the around 2 million people in Kentucky enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, may qualify for coverage under a Dual Special Needs Plan. Chloe Atwater, health justice attorney at the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, said nearly 40% of the state’s population is low-income. She
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Lawmakers join KY’s largest addiction treatment provider to oppose Medicaid payment cuts
by Deborah Yetter, Kentucky Lantern July 30, 2024 FRANKFORT — The state’s largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment is warning that looming cuts in Medicaid reimbursement to some providers could damage efforts to curb addiction that has engulfed Kentucky — just as the state is showing improvements. “Kentucky has made significant strides in access
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Former Inez lawyer climbed out of alcoholism, launched a recovery boom
BY DEBORAH YETTER KENTUCKY LANTERN LOUISA — Around the office at Addiction Recovery Care, Vanessa Keeton is still known as “Client One” — marking her status as the first client of the first recovery center ARC opened as a group home in Lawrence County. But her official title is vice president of marketing, where she
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Wheeler, regional stakeholders celebrate Senate Bill 280 becoming law
FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear held a ceremonial bill signing of Sen. Phillip Wheeler’s Senate Bill 280 Friday afternoon. The bill creates a new program to allow classified rural hospitals to receive the same Medicaid reimbursements that either the University of Kentucky College of Medicine or the University of Louisville School of Medicine normally receive.
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Whipsawed by the system, dozens of independent pharmacies closed in Kentucky last year, and more are expected to follow suit
KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS In the past year, at least 67 independent pharmacies have closed in Kentucky, and more are expected to close because of a recent change in the system that favors big pharmacy chains. So reports Alex Acquisto of the Lexington Herald-Leader in a significant story for rural Kentucky. “Pharmacists are often the first
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Lost in the mix of ‘unwinding’ Medicaid to its normal procedures: The state can cut off your health care over a technical error
BY RACHANA PRADHAN KFF HEALTH NEWS The day her Medicaid coverage ended, Beverly Likens was in the hospital after a scary trip to the emergency room. The resident of Martin, Ky., in Floyd County, was diagnosed with severe anemia and given a blood transfusion after her hemoglobin levels had plummeted. Likens, 48 at the time,
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Kentucky first state with automatic Medicaid renewal for children
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Kentucky has received federal approval to automatically renew coverage for children in Medicaid or the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program for 12 months. “Kentucky is the first state in the country to implement this kind of flexibility,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said in making the announcement Thursday. “It went
