In a rally Wednesday at Boston’s Faneuil Hall to promote Obamacare, President Obama singled out two states he lost in the 2012 election — Arkansas and Kentucky — for their efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act.
“Keep in mind, I did not win in Kentucky. But there are a lot of uninsured people in Kentucky and they’re signing up,” Obama said while touting the law in Boston. “Arkansas, I didn’t win that state either. Covered almost 1 percent of its uninsured already. That’s already happened.”
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) has overseen what might be the best launch of a state-based insurance marketplace in the last month, over the objections of Republicans in his legislature, and Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) sought an alternative means of expanding Medicaid under the law after his GOP-controlled legislature rejected the traditional expansion.
He also namechecked Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who also went around the state legislature, which controlled by his fellow Republicans, to expand Medicaid.
“Unfortunately, there are others so locked into the politics of this thing, they won’t lift a finger to help their people and that’s leaving millions of Americans uninsured unnecessarily,” he continued. “That’s a shame. Because if they put as much energy into making this law work as they do in attacking the law, Americans would be better off.”
