Children arrive at the iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in Benton in November. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)
It’s that time of every-other-year again: Kentucky’s General Assembly is working on the state’s budget. Advocates, policy analysts, lobbyists and constituents will fill the halls of Frankfort until mid-April, working to see their priorities get funded. What’s different this year is that there’s more than enough to go around – an unprecedented $3.7 billion budget reserve – to fund policies and programs that help all Kentuckians thrive. After two decades of recession, inflation, economic hit after economic hit, it’s a refreshing reality.?
We deserve to see this surplus used wisely, not set aside. It’s time for Kentucky to invest in itself. From clean drinking water to better roads, addressing substance use and investing in education, affordable housing and disaster recovery, there are many priorities in need of investment to help ensure a healthier, more vibrant future for Kentucky. Every family and local economy in the state benefits from a strong health care safety net and child care industry.
Despite increase, House budget won’t save Kentucky child care from ‘cliff,’ advocates say
By fully funding Medicaid, lawmakers will support Kentucky’s hospitals, local economies, health care workforce, and the one in three Kentuckians who use Medicaid for their health care, including over 650,000 children. Policymakers have made smart, upstream Medicaid investments in recent years: hospital incentives for improved health outcomes, reimbursement for certified community health workers, 12-months of postpartum coverage, better rates for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) providers, supported employment and housing for those with serious mental illness (SMI), and healthy reentry supports for Kentuckians leaving incarceration.?
These policies are moving Kentucky’s needle in a healthier direction. Since Medicaid’s expansion in 2014, Kentucky has been rising steadily in America’s Health Rankings, and fully funding Medicaid means continuing our upward trajectory towards better health. Cuts to Medicaid funding wouldn’t just harm low-income families, it would mean jeopardizing federal matching dollars (roughly 80 cents for every 20 cents the state spends). That weakens our entire health care system, reducing access to care for every Kentuckian. To improve health outcomes and economic prospects of Kentuckians, Medicaid is one of Kentucky’s best investments.
Another bright spot for families and children, Kentucky recently became a national leader – literally No. 1 – for innovative investments in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). For the first time, child care workers became eligible to participate in CCAP, enabling more than 5,000 children to remain in child care and more than 3,000 child care workers to continue working. With less than 13,000 child care workers across the commonwealth, this investment likely saved our child care industry from completely crumbling under the economic pressures of the pandemic.?
But Kentucky’s child care industry was struggling even before COVID-19. In the span of a decade, Kentucky lost 46% of our child care providers, a precipitous slide that only stabilized with an infusion of a billion dollars in federal pandemic aid. In our survey of nearly 800 child care centers, a majority indicated that without CCAP improvements and relief payments from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), they would have likely closed in the past two years. One in four still face that uncertainty.?
Kentucky legislature asked to end long, worrying wait lists for adults with disabilities
Stabilization payments that allowed child care providers to increase wages and make facility investments have already ended and the remaining enhanced federal funds expire in September. What happens if we get to September’s funding cliff without sufficient investment from the state? Upwards of 554 child care programs could close, 41,000 children lose their daycare slot, and $92 million in family earnings would be lost from parents cutting hours or leaving the workforce altogether. Lawmakers must answer the urgent need to maintain our child care capacity at $330 million per year.?
Child care is the industry that supports all industries. If we ever want to expand capacity to serve thousands of families on waiting lists for a spot and meet workforce demands for safe, high-quality child care, more will be needed. But, investing in the livelihoods of families with children is worth it. In real dollars and “sense” — for every $1 dollar invested in child care, $4-$9 are returned to the economy. Significant need, meet significant investment. Significant investment, meet significant return.
Kentucky is at a crossroads. We’ve witnessed historic economic growth, but not every sector or region has kept pace with that growth. Amid egregious inflation and spiraling costs, not every family has seen that growth trickle down into their pocketbooks. Kentucky still faces troubling shortages among nurses, teachers, child care, affordable housing, and mental health care. Thousands of vulnerable children and adults with disabilities remain on years-long waiting lists for services they need to live. Fully funding Medicaid, expanding waiver slots, investing $330M per year in child care, creating refundable tax credits for moms and babies — all of this and more is achievable in 2024’s budget. Our children, our families, and our economy cannot afford to wait.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Jan. 16 is the deadline to sign up for health insurance on the Kynect marketplace. (Getty Images)
One in three Kentuckians are going through the Medicaid renewals process for the first time since they were paused in 2020. Thousands are going to be finding themselves in a unique position of needing to enroll in health care outside of the usual marketplace open enrollment dates.
Thousands more will be required to provide personal information or documentation in order to verify Medicaid eligibility. Whether you use Medicaid for your health care or are shopping for a new health plan: Protect your personal information.?
Since humans invented money, scammers have found a calling, and they are savvy; as rapidly as technology can advance in our modern world, so do their tactics.
Many Medicaid members are either new to? the renewal process or simply unfamiliar with the paperwork requirements and scammers are doing what scammers do best. They are capitalizing on the opportunity to try to trick millions of Americans out of their hard-earned money and take advantage of the volume of personal information being submitted in hopes that for every piece of information that they can compromise, even more fraud can be committed under the veil of someone else’s identity.
Kentuckians should be protective of sharing personal information such as their full name, Social Security number, and date of birth. These things are often referred to as Personal Identifiable Information, or PII.?
Regardless of the type of coverage you enroll in, all enrollees need to be on alert for outright fraud and identity theft. The Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services (DMS) may very well need new or additional information from you in order to complete your renewal, but remember that you will NEVER have to pay to complete your renewal, and government employees will NEVER threaten you, ask for credit information or make other suspicious demands.
When a phone number has been spoofed, it will appear as though a local or recognizable phone number is calling you. On spoofed lines, you will often hear a very brief “beep” at the start of the call, connecting you to a scammer often hundreds of miles away, waiting with their script to push whatever gimmick they’ve been convinced to “sel.l”?
If anyone calls claiming to be from the government, but lacks your Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security numbers or asks for credit card or banking information, it’s probably time to hang up. You always have the power and the right to hang up the phone and call one of the official state hotlines to guarantee you are speaking with a legitimate state employee, kynector or agent. The kynect line is 855.4kynect (855-459-6328) and the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services line is 855.306.8959. The downside is that you may be placed into a wait-line queue, but you will have the peace of mind knowing your PII (and dignity) have not been compromised, and that is invaluable.
For new health plan shoppers, low-cost “skinny” plans and “junk plans” are simply not what they seem. These short-term plans are intended to fill temporary coverage gaps, but many only offer plans that come with usage restrictions, hidden fees and major coverage limitations. Do your research and remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
For those who wish to explore the peculiarly affordable and appealing sticker price of “skinny” plans anyway, shop wisely for the care you need and deserve. Unlike health plans sold on kynect, these plans will not limit out of pocket costs — but they may limit the amount that insurance will cover either for individual procedures, or over the course of a lifetime. In other words, if you purchase one of these plans and then have an accident that lands you in the emergency room, you might be on the hook for all costs above your plan’s coverage cap.
“Skinny” plans can, and will, exclude Kentuckians with pre-existing medical conditions — such as diabetes or cancer — from receiving coverage. They can drop you from coverage if you’re diagnosed with a condition even after enrolling, possibly leaving you with no options until the next open enrollment period.
Cancer treatment drugs alone can cost $10,000 a month on average, not to mention the cost of other cancer-related care. Nobody should have to choose between getting the care they need to live and going bankrupt. That’s why it’s important to look out for certain things to guarantee the plan you’re buying covers everything you need:
A low sticker price may be hiding the fact the plan doesn’t cover things like hospital visits, prescriptions, or places a dollar cap on benefits, which will leave you at risk for hundreds or thousands of dollars in medical bills.
It’s more important than ever for Kentuckians to read the fine print on their health insurance plan and be on the lookout for scams. In today’s economy, no one has time to give money to scammers, find themselves or their loved ones unable to get care when it’s needed most, or compromise their identity.?
The trusted place for Kentuckians to find quality health plans so you can get and stay healthy is kynect.
For Kentuckians with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level, you can enroll in plans for $0 a month. Four out of five Kentuckians are eligible for premium tax credits that can make plans less than $10 a month. There is additional assistance to reduce the cost of copays, coinsurance and deductibles.?
Find out if you’re eligible for these savings and reach a legitimate representative (not a scammer!) by visiting kynect.ky.gov, or by calling either 855.4kynect or 855.306.8959 today.
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