Interview with Former Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.
TRUMP: Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits. As an example, Arizona went up 116 percent last year alone. Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky just said Obamacare is failing in his state, the state of Kentucky. And it's unsustainable and collapsing.</s>CUOMO: President Trump outlining his plan to repeal and replace Obamacare kind of, there really weren't any details about that and his party still hashing it out. But he did single out Kentucky, which actually saw one of the steepest decreases of uninsured residents after Obamacare went into effect. And it's part of the reason that last night, the face of the Democratic rebuttal was former Democratic Governor Steve Beshear. He gave the response last night, sitting in a diner, as I recall. Yes, Governor?</s>STEVE BESHEAR (D), FORMER KENTUCKY GOVERNOR: Yes, that's exactly right, Chris. We figured that it was time to focus this debate on everything going on in this country, on the folks that it really affects -- real people out here in America.</s>CUOMO: Now, one point of curiosity is that usually the rebuttal, they will have some charging young tiger, the future face of the Democratic Party. You guys went a different way, which means either you're going to run for president in 2020 and that's why you did that last night or there was a different strategy at play. What's the answer?</s>BESHEAR: Well, Chris, the first thing you mentioned is not the answer. I'm not running for president in 2020. Why I think they picked me, probably two reasons. Number one, I governed for eight years in a state bringing Democrats and Republicans together. We had a success story here in so many ways. We halved our unemployment. We raised our educational standards and our high school education rates. We created lots of jobs and we implemented the Affordable Care Act and gave insurance, health insurance for over 500,000 Kentuckians. Secondly, I don't have any personal stake in this. I'm not looking at the next office. And so, I think everybody felt like when I talk about these issues, that people can be convinced that I'm doing it from the heart. You know, I'm not trying to improve myself and get myself into the next office.</s>CUOMO: Well, the president said he was bringing it from the heart last night as well. People will always judge the intentions by the actions, and when it comes to health care, what do you say the reality is in places like Kentucky? Did it work? Is it problematic? Does it need fixes or does it need to be completely revamped?</s>BESHEAR: Well, obviously, the facts speak for themselves. I know that we're now in this world of alternative facts, but look at the facts in Kentucky. We had some of the worst health statistics in the country and have had them for a long, long time. Three years after implementing the Affordable Care Act, our uninsured rate dropped from over 20 percent to 7 percent. Our uncompensated care rate for providers dropped from like 25 percent to less than 5 percent. People are actually getting health care coverage now and they like it and preventive care is kicking in and the statistics are showing that people's health is starting to get better. So, it works here in Kentucky. We also had outside studies from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Consulting, and they all concluded the same thing, not only is it work, it's creating jobs. I created 12,000 jobs in the first year that we implemented the Affordable Care Act. It's going to have a positive impact on our budget. You know, those are just the fact. Now, the folks that don't leak this don't like those facts and so, they just keep repeating that old political phrase of oh, it's just not working. It's not sustainable, hoping that if they repeat that long enough, somebody is going to believe them.</s>CUOMO: So, last night, the president looked over at the Democratic side of Congress and said, it's time to stop these trivial disputes. There was a lot of pushback on that last night that these disputes are anything but trivial and that was the wrong message, if that was the way towards unity, it was the wrong way. Why?</s>BESHEAR: Well, look, I think Democrats have always been ready to work with the other side. You know, it takes two sides to work together to find common ground and Democrats are willing to sit down. Take health care, for instance. We know that there are things that need to be fixed with the Affordable Care Act. Some people's premiums are too high. There are some issues with small business. You know, we need to sit down and make it better. And we're willing to do that. But our bottom line is simply this. In 2010, this country made a commitment to every single American that they would have affordable good health care in the future and that is our bottom line. Whatever plan is put together, we want everybody to have that kind of affordable care. And every plan we seen so far from the Republicans goes in just the opposite direction. It rips health care away from millions of Americans and actually from hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, that's not acceptable. But if you want to make this better, if you want to make sure that everybody has health care, but that it's good, it's affordable, that it works --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>BESHEAR: -- we're willing to sit down and work with them.</s>CUOMO: Well, Governor, there is a counterfactual on that. There is a broader array of opinion in the Republican Party of what to do. They have real problems t. Ryan plan isn't being accepted by numerous factions in there. So, they have their own challenges. But what they all say is, the Democrats have been told not to help. Every time I asked, are any Democrats going to work with you on this one? Who's reaching across? They all say the same thing, no, they've been told to lock it up for now. We'll see what happens going forward.