UPDATE: Advocates criticize Bevin’s plan to overhaul Medicaid

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) – Health care advocates and consumers say Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program would spell disaster, and urged him to significantly alter his proposal or abandon it.

Several hundred people packed an auditorium at Western Kentucky University on Tuesday to attend the first of three public hearings on Bevin’s proposal. Kentucky expanded its Medicaid program under former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to include able-bodied adults who meet certain income requirements. About 400,000 people got health insurance because of those changes.

Bevin says the program is too expensive. He wants to make beneficiaries pay a small monthly premium and hold down a job or do volunteer work in order to receive benefits.

None of the 22 people who spoke at the hearing supported the proposal.

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Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration is holding its first public hearing on his proposal to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.

Medicaid is paid for by state and federal funds, so the federal government must approve Bevin’s proposal. If they don’t, Bevin said he would eliminate Kentucky’s expanded Medicaid program, meaning some 400,000 people would lose their health insurance.

State officials plan to receive public input on the proposal during the forum Tuesday morning in Bowling Green.

Bevin announced details of his proposal last week. Most of the 1.2 million Kentuckians who have health insurance through the state’s Medicaid program would have fewer benefits and pay monthly premiums to keep their coverage.

Bevin said the goal is to move people off Medicaid and into the private insurance market.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.