Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said he doesn’t know whether the Medicaid expansion “will be taken away” from his state’s residents, another sign Republicans are giving ground on a major feature of the Affordable Care Act.
In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, the Republican Minority Leader argued that the state’s acceptance of federal funding to expand Medicaid was a “mistake” but he also suggested it may not be undone.
“I don’t know that it will be taken away from them,” he said of the newly eligible recipients.
After the Supreme Court ruled that the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare could not be mandatory, many Republican-led states opted out, but that has slowly changed in recent weeks as some former holdouts have signed up.
As a Republican facing a tough re-election fight in a state where Obamacare implementation went fairly smoothly, McConnell also has reason not to make too big of an issue out of the Medicaid expansion.
He currently leads his Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, by 3 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average.
