Mitch McConnell doubles-down, says Kentucky Obamacare exchange can survive without Obamacare

The topsy-turvy politics of Obamacare were on full display during the Kentucky Senate debate late Monday, as Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell suggested the health care law should be pulled out “root and branch” but the state exchange website tied to the overhaul could somehow survive.

To some extent, the Senate minority leader’s perplexing position mirrored the refusals of Democratic rival Alison Lundergan Grimes to say who she voted for in the last presidential election.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear shepherded the establishment of “kynect,” a state-run website that allows residents to shop for private health plans, often with the help of government subsidies, through President Obama’s signature health law. His push for an in-house portal made Kentucky the only southern state to set up its own exchange, while others relied on the federal HealthCare.gov website.

Unlike many other Obamacare websites, kynect was largely successful. It remained technically sound and has been credited with helping steer Kentuckians to Medicaid and private coverage.

Late Monday, Mr. McConnell suggested the law — which still polls poorly in the state — and the website aren’t intrinsically linked.

“Kentucky Kynect is a website. It was paid for by a two-hundred-and-some-odd-million-dollar grant from the federal government. The website can continue but in my view the best interests of the country would be achieved by pulling out ObamaCare root and branch,” the senator said.

Mr. McConnell said the survival of kynect would be a “state decision” and he’d be fine with the website surviving.

But it’s unclear how useful that site would be without the framework and subsidies provided by the president’s health law. The subsidies cut down the cost of health insurance for people who earn between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level and qualify to shop on the health exchange.

Mr. McConnell said Monday that Obamacare paid for those subsidies by swiping more than $700 billion from Medicare, particularly reimbursement payments for insurer-run Medicare Advantage plans.

“They used it as a piggy bank,” he said.

For her part, Ms. Grimes said the senator was living in a “fictional fantasy land” and that the health care law has helped half a million Kentuckians get coverage.

But she said she would like to “fix” the law. For instance, she wants people to be able to keep the plans they have indefinitely, despite the law’s new coverage standards.