In the third campaign rally of his first two months in office, Donald Trump told supporters in Louisville, Kentucky that the Affordable Care Act has been a disaster in Kentucky, even though the Bluegrass State has seen one of the largest drops in the uninsured rate since the law took effect.
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Trump said:
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It’s a disaster. In fact, to counter my speech two weeks ago in Congress … they used the former governor of Kentucky, and the plan doesn’t work in Kentucky … Obamacare has been a complete and total catastrophe, and it’s getting worse and worse by the day. And yet, you watch the fake media, the fake news and they try to build it up. It’s a disaster, fellas.
The only problem with the president trying to sell the unpopular Trumpcare in Kentucky is that the Affordable Care Act has been incredibly successful in the state. It has not been, as he said on Monday, a “disaster.”
As the Courier-Journal reported today, “More than half a million people have gained health coverage under the law, about 440,000 through Medicaid and another 81,000 through commercial health plans bought through the federal online health exchange, healthcare.gov.”
The surge of Kentuckians acquiring health insurance in the state has led to one of the largest statewide decreases in the insured rate in the country – from 20.4 percent before Obamacare to 7.8 after, according to Gallup.
If Trump wants to keep calling the Affordable Care Act a “disaster,” he probably shouldn’t do it in a state that has benefited so much from the law.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.