486,000 Kentuckians would lose insurance
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 31, 2017) — Repealing the Affordable Care Act would cost Kentucky’s economy $3.4 billion and 56,000 jobs by 2019, says a report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-profit research group. The report found that Kentucky will lose more jobs as a share of its under-65 population than every state but New Mexico.
Should the ACA be repealed, Kentucky would lose $259 million in subsidies to help working families buy affordable insurance, as well as $3.8 billion in federal Medicaid spending. This spending loss is more than 2 percent of the state’s GDP. Meanwhile, high-income Kentuckians would receive a tax cut of $677 million.
A total of 486,000 Kentuckians would lost health insurance coverage, leading to a 200 percent jump in the number of uninsured, says the report.
Because the cuts to spending are greater than the tax cuts, and because the spending in ACA is targeted to lower-income Americans who tend to spend more of their take-home pay, the overall effect of repealing the ACA would be less money in Kentucky’s economy and fewer jobs created.
“If the ACA is repealed, Kentuckians’ purchasing power will be reduced and this will translate into less spending and hence fewer jobs in their state’s economy,” said EPI Research and Policy Director Josh Bivens. “ACA repeal is simply not a good deal for Kentucky.”
To read the national report click here.
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