Governor Andy Beshear on Thursday extended Medicaid coverage for dental, vision and hearing care to hundreds of thousands of Kentucky adults, saying the sweeping initiative will remove some of the health-related obstacles keeping people from getting jobs.
The expansion will cover about 900,000 adults enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program. They will be eligible for the extended benefits starting January 1, 2023, with no special enrollment period needed.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state health care program for poor and disabled people. The federal government will pay for the “vast majority” of the expanded care. The remainder of the costs can be absorbed by the state’s Medicaid budget.
The governor said it will have no significant impact on Kentucky’s budget and will require no changes to the budget in this next legislative session.
Federal funds will cover 90% of the initiative’s $36 million in annual costs, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said in a follow-up statement Thursday. The state Department for Medicaid Services will cover the remaining 10%.
The initiative applies to individuals earning less than $18,700 per year and a family of four with income under $38,200 yearly. People 21 and under already qualify for the dental, vision and hearing services if enrolled in Medicaid.
Beshear commonly refers to health care as a “basic human right,” but he stressed the initiative’s value in getting more people into the workforce. Lagging workforce participation coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn complaints from business leaders and Republican politicians.
He said the goal here is to get folks to work and ultimately get them off Medicaid.
Source: AP
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