Newspaper Writes Blistering Editorial On McConnell’s Shift On Obamacare

One of the biggest newspapers in Kentucky is taking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to task for taking a bizarre new position on Obamacare and Kentucky’s state-based Obamacare exchange, Kynect.

McConnell has recently begun arguing that while Obamacare should be repealed, the state of Kentucky should be able to keep the Kynect system as it is, even if the federal law the system is based on were to be uprooted completely.

“If Obamacare is repealed, Kentucky should decide for itself whether to keep Kynect or set up a different marketplace,” McConnell campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore told TPM on Tuesday.

That doesn’t quite add up to the editorial board of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

“Repeal the federal law, which McConnell calls ‘Obamacare,’ and the state exchange would collapse,” the editorial said on Wednesday. “Kynect could not survive without the ACA’s insurance reforms, including no longer allowing insurance companies to cancel policies when people get sick or deny them coverage because of pre-existing conditions, as well as the provision ending lifetime limits on benefit payments. (Kentucky tried to enact such reforms in the 1990s and found out we were too small a market to do it alone.)”

The editorial goes on to say that Kynect wouldn’t be able to survive without the federal funding from Obamacare.

“Kynect is the Affordable Care Act is Obamacare — even if Kentuckians are confused about which is which,” the editorial continued.

The editorial went on to say that the talking points it received from the McConnell campaign in response to questions about McConnell on Kynect and Obamacare are “unconnected to reality.”

“Kentuckians are waiting to learn if their five-term senator understands —or cares— how much is at stake,” the editorial concluded.