Nationwide, eyes on are Ky.’s implementation and debate about Obamacare, and thousands of Kentuckians are signing up for it

The good, the bad and the ugly about health reform in Kentucky are showing up on national news as the state’s two Republican senators stand vehemently against Obamacare and the state’s Democratic governor ardently roots for it. Meanwhile, state officials say their health-insurance website, which is working much better than the federal site, is getting much more traffic than they expected.

The Republican senators from Kentucky, Rand Paul and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, declared last week that their constituents didn’t want any part of the Affordable Care Act. “Obamacare might sell in New York, but Kentuckians aren’t buying it,” McConnell and Paul wrote in a column sent to newspapers.

This came after Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who decided to build the insurance exchange without asking for approval from the politically divided General Assembly, wrote a New York Times op-ed in support of the reform law. He jabbed at “naysayers” who “pour time, money and energy into overturning or defunding the Affordable Care Act.”

The problem for McConnell and Paul is that Kentuckians are buying into Obamacare, writes John Tozzi of Bloomberg Businessweek. “In fact, the Kentucky exchange has, so far, enrolled more patients than any other.” Kentuckians are enrolling in droves, at a rate of more than 1,000 people per day, and Beshear has become more pointed in his criticism of McConnell and Paul.

“Our state’s U.S. senators are simply ignoring the facts when they continue to insist that ‘no one’ in Kentucky wants the Affordable Care Act,” Beshear told MSNBC.

Carrie Banahan, executive director of Kynect, the state’s insurance exchange, told Jane Timm of MSNBC that enrollements are far beyond state officials’ expectations. “We had thought that maybe we might receive a couple of hundred applications during the month of October. We had no idea it would be thousands of applications.”

Kynect’s Carrie Banahan (left) and Gov. Steve Beshear

There were concerns that people in rural areas might not get the word about the program or have difficulty signing up because they lack Internet access, but Teresa Fleming, chief financial officer of Mountain Comprehensive Health in Eastern Kentucky, told Timm her lobbies had been flooded with people signing up for the plans. Her primary-care facilities were among the numerous Kentucky clinics that received part of $2.83 million in federal money for Kynect outreach and enrollment iniatives.“The response has shocked us,” Fleming said, “We think it’s due to a lot of word of mouth.”

Kentucky’s success is getting much national attention. Beshear discussed it with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and keynoted a meeting in Washington. President Obama praised Beshear’s implementation during a private meeting with House Democrats Wednesday, said Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, who was at the meeting.