BURLINGTON, Vt., July 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Friday that one of the great ironies of the current health care debate in Washington is that those states that voted heavily for Trump and Republicans, including Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s own state of Kentucky, will be punished the most by the Republican health care plan. Sanders will be holding rallies in Covington, Kentucky, and Morgantown, West Virginia, this Sunday in opposition to the Republican legislation.

“Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented, no state in the country has benefited more from the ACA than Kentucky. The uninsured rate for adults in Kentucky has gone down from 20.4 percent in 2013 to just 7.8 percent in 2016 – the largest reduction in America. Today, as a result of the ACA, only 4 percent of children in Kentucky are uninsured,” Sanders said.

“Unbelievably, at a time when Kentucky has made significant progress in health care, the Republican bill being proposed in the Senate by Kentucky’s own Senator Mitch McConnell would throw over 230,000 people in Kentucky off of health insurance. It would also decimate the Medicaid program in the state which provides insurance for more than 2 million people, including 40 percent of all children.

“Further, at a time when Kentucky is struggling with an opioid addiction epidemic, there is no question that if McConnell’s legislation were to be passed, thousands of Kentuckians would no longer be able to receive the treatment they desperately need.

“The bottom line is that this legislation, which nationally would throw 22 million Americans off of health insurance, cut Medicaid by almost $800 billion, substantially raise premiums for older workers and defund Planned Parenthood, is a disaster for America but an even greater disaster for Kentucky and other states that voted heavily for Trump. This Republican legislation must be defeated.”