What a day!

What a day.

Scanning KFTC’s social media feeds confirms, of course, frustration over tactics by House Republicans, and fear about the impact of the government shutdown. Attempts to confirm weekend hikes, fall camping trips, and sources for research projects kept bumping up against websites that are now closed because of the federal government shutdown. The impact of the shutdown will continue until well after it has passed.  What we know now is that it will be significant, with thousands of federal workers furloughed, Head Start programs shutting down, federal school lunch programs and WIC uncertain, and the EPA basically shuttered.

But there’s a good dose of jubilation mixed in, as well, over access to health care. As of this morning, 640,000 uninsured Kentuckians have access to affordable health care. Some of you signed up on KYNECT, Kentucky’s health insurance marketplace, before the sun came up! By 9:30 this morning, 24,000 people had visited the site and over 1,000 applications had already been processed. Pre-existing conditions will no longer prevent anyone from getting coverage, and insurance companies can no longer set annual or lifetime limits in coverage. It’s an incredible step forward.

Here are some ways that Kentuckians can lift up the good:

• Sign up for health care coverage or learn more here: KYNECT!
• Find updates on the Kentucky Health News, an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
• Share out what you're seeing and learning about access to health care. What are the experiences that we can all learn from over the next several weeks?
• And finally, it's clear that the shutdown will impact the lives of Kentuckians. Please share out the impacts that you feel and learn about! Some of our elected leaders have been known to shrug off the implications of their votes in Washington. Help hold them accountable by sharing out the impacts that you see and feel.