According to Beshear, the pandemic has revealed where our priorities have to be in terms of where we start addressing the issue of health care coverage.
He said, "When we have in the middle of a pandemic that's going to continue until there is a vaccine, a portion of our population that is dying at twice the rate they make up, then don't you believe we have an obligation to go out and ensure especially that community right away is able to sign up for a form of coverage?"
According to Beshear, there is between 18 to 20 thousand black Kentuckians that have no form of coverage. His short term goal is to reach out to every single one of those Kentuckians and get them signed up for some form of coverage, whether it's Medicaid, private market, or otherwise.
"That doesn't mean we're going to stop there," Beshear continued, "eventually we want to make sure that everybody who doesn't have coverage, has coverage, again using one of the forms that's out there."
There are 245 new cases of the virus across the Commonwealth, bringing the total number of cases to 11,708.
Out of the new cases, four were in Christian, two in Hardin, and one in Calloway, Fulton, Graves, McCracken, and Trigg counties. There are currently 525 Kentuckians hospitalized with the virus, with 75 of those in the ICU.
As of Tuesday, five more Kentuckians have passed away after contracting the virus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths to 477. One of those deaths was a 53-year-old woman from McCracken county. A total of 3,365 Kentuckians have recovered from the virus.
