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Kentucky Politicians Quick To React To Supreme Court Ruling On Obamacare

U-S Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasted no time in reacting to today's Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare.  The Kentucky Republican renewed his attack on the entire law in a Senate floor speech.

"Today’s ruling won’t change Obamacare’s spectacular flops, from humiliating website debacles to the total collapse of exchanges in states run by the law’s loudest cheerleaders. Today’s ruling won’t change the skyrocketing costs in premiums, deductibles, and co-pays that have hit the middle class so hard over the last few years," McConnell decried.

The senior senator did not offer any alternative plan to guarantee health insurance for millions of Americans who have obtained coverage through Obamacare.

McConnell's Kentucky Republican colleague Senator Rand Paul released a statement claiming: "As President I would make it my mission to repeal it."

Meanwhile the only Democrat in Kentucky's Congressional delegation, Congressman John Yarmuth of Louisville expressed his satisfaction with the ruling in an interview with cable news channel MSNBC.

"The ACA benefits people who already have insurance.  Ending lifetime limits on damages.  Providing free preventive care.  Letting kids stay on their parents' policies until they're 26.  As more and more families come to understand the comprehensive benefits of the law then I think it's going to become a difficult issue  for the Republicans," Yarmuth said.

Republican Sixth District Congressman Andy Barr of Lexington released the following statement:

“I appreciate the Court’s consideration of this case, but I strongly and respectfully disagree with the majority opinion.  Laws should be implemented as they are written, not as the President wishes they were written.  The ruling may temporarily shield many Americans from the true cost of health care under Obamacare but it does nothing to solve the problem of rising prices and government-rationed care.”

“Congress will be forced to revisit this issue because we cannot indefinitely continue to subsidize a broken health care system laden with expensive and job-killing Obamacare mandates.  House Republicans have put forward many ideas, including my Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act, which would expand access to quality care, foster innovation, and lower costs.  I will continue to advocate for these reforms and focus on protecting people, not this failed law.  Now is the time to end Obamacare’s mandates, taxes, deficit spending and red tape that have failed the American people, and move quickly to embrace patient-centered, market-based reforms.”

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, one of the healthcare law's most ardent supporters, released this statement to the media Thursday afternoon:

“Making healthcare coverage accessible and affordable to all citizens is the cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act. To conclude that the law’s intent was only to offer subsidies to those who purchased healthcare coverage through their state’s health benefit exchange when many states declined to establish one would have penalized the very individuals the law was designed to help. I am pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court wisely ruled in favor of those 6.4 million people in the nation who could have lost their access to affordable health insurance. 

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in King v. Burwell has no impact on Kentuckians who qualified for discounts through kynect, as their subsidies were never in question. However, it reaffirms that, from the very start, we did the right thing for the more than 500,000 Kentuckians who have qualified for healthcare coverage through kynect since January 1, 2014.”

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