On September 17, 2026, Justin Garrett, medical student at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pikeville, spoke at the Medicaid Listening Tour in Prestonsburg. He is the president of the chapter of Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP).
Justin reports:
I tried to firstly address the controversy between Barr and Beshear on the validity of the claims made that 35 hospitals in Kentucky were at risk of closing due to the cuts in Medicaid.
I then briefly mentioned some statistics on how poorly Kentucky ranks compared to other states in overall Healthcare and how it would affect Kentuckians if these hospitals were to close.
I then transitioned to talk about Medicare for All and how Americans would benefit from it, and closed my speech by bringing up a study that showed we would save money by switching to M4A.
After the event, we talked with the panelists and had pleasant exchanges with many of them as well as the other listeners/speakers that shared stories. I also met with Ned Pillersdorf afterward, and he congratulated us on our work back in July and made it a point to say he would like to try to work with us on an event in the near future at Upike!
Paul Hoppe, member of the Steering Committee of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, was the first speaker at the Prestonsburg event. Paul reports:
Representative Lindsey Burke, who is the minority caucus chair from house district 75 in Lexington, moderated the event in the absence of Dustin Pugel.
Steve Bechtel, chief financial officer, Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services was the featured speaker and spoke on the real dollar shortfalls facing the Kentucky Medicaid Program.
Also, in attendance was legislator Joshua Watkins, who is the minority whip from Louisville and 3 other state legislators representing Frankfort and Lexington. As usual, Justin gave a very good talk concerning the overall disaster unfolding with the Medicaid cuts.
I spoke specifically on the impact of the forecasted hospital closings. At the end Mr. Bechtel approached Justin, Phyllis, and I, thanking us for participating and shared that the Sheps study is absolutely correct and he has the numbers to prove it.
He also said the results of any closings or even downgrading of services I outlined were accurate.
You can watch a brief video with Paul and Justin at this link: