Tagged: Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange

A tea party activist has filed a lawsuit in Frankfort challenging the legality of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange that Gov. Steve Beshear approved last year by executive order.

David Adams says in the lawsuit filed Monday that Beshear created the exchange without necessary legislative approval. Adams is asking a judge to order work on the exchange to cease.

Federal health care reforms have led to the creation of a government agency in Kentucky comparable in staffing to the secretary of state's office, with 30 employees. But it also has scores of contract workers and an annual budget more than 10 times larger, at $39.5 million.  The Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange will help more than 600,000 uninsured residents arrange coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Tea party activists are pushing to dismantle Kentucky's new health insurance exchange before it even gets off the ground. After a Thursday board meeting for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange activists said they are supporting a bill to require legislative approval of the exchange, which was created by Gov. Steve Beshear’s executive order.