In their next-to-last debate before Election Day, Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear exchanged assertions and disputations for an hour on KET Monday night.
The State Journal has analyzed several statements made by each candidate during the hourlong debate to assess context and accuracy.
Bevin: Someone commits suicide in a casino every night
Bevin and Beshear again revisited the issue of expanded gambling, including the phrasing of a Bevin statement in July to WKDZ Radio in Cadiz: “Every night somewhere in America, somebody takes their life in a casino because they’ve wasted the last semblance of dignity and hope that they had.”
During Saturday night’s debate in Louisville, Beshear paraphrased Bevin as saying “that someone commits suicide on a casino floor every night.” Bevin responded, “I never said anything like that.”
In Monday’s debate, Bevin said Beshear misrepresented his comment by saying suicides occurred on casino floors. Bevin said he meant casinos in general, which often include hotels. He stood by his comment about the frequency of suicides in casinos, saying someone commits suicide every other night in Las Vegas alone.
There is evidence that suicide rates are higher in Western states such as Nevada; according to 2017 suicide rates data, Nevada was tied with Colorado for the 10th highest suicide rate. But The State Journal was unable to find any data Monday night about recent rates in Las Vegas or surrounding Clark County.
Bevin instructed viewers at home to Google “hotel casino suicides.” The top result is a 2004 CBS News report about suicides in Las Vegas, titled “The Suicide Capital of America.”
Beshear: Expanded gambling will keep $550 million in Kentucky
Beshear repeated his assertion that expanded gaming would raise money for the state by keeping in Kentucky $550 million a year that he said Kentuckians gamble in other states. Beshear made a similar claim in the Paducah debate earlier this month, which the State Journal fact checked then.
The $550 million figure seems to be an exaggeration of earlier estimates. In 2011, a Spectrum Gaming analysis said Kentuckians gambled $546 million in 2010, at least $451 million of it at casinos in neighboring states. The 2011 analysis estimated that the number would be $527 million in 2015.
When asked why he wouldn’t raise the sales tax a penny rather than expand gaming, since the sales tax would raise more money and both are considered to be regressive forms of revenue generation, Beshear said: “We’re not taking any more dollars from people. We’re just keeping them here.”
That fails to take into account the possibility that people who do not currently drive across state lines to gamble may take up gambling when the opportunity is closer by — and that Kentuckians who now gamble in other states may gamble more if casinos are closer.
Bevin: He has never ‘put forward anything’ to eliminate coverage of preexisting conditions
During a discussion about health insurance, Bevin denied Beshear’s frequent assertion that the incumbent favors eliminating coverage of preexisting conditions for Kentuckians. He said he has never “put forward anything” that would do that.
The assertion is based on the fact that Bevin supports association health plans, which allow small businesses to purchase more expansive coverage by joining with nearby businesses to function as a single, larger employer in order to reduce the cost to small-business owners.
While AHPs are prohibited from discriminating based on preexisting conditions, critics say that as a practical matter, AHPs can write plans that exclude people with preexisting conditions.
Beshear noted that the American Medical Association opposes a lawsuit that wants to reverse a lower court decision against expanded access to AHPs. Bevin, along with officials from 15 other states, filed a court brief in June in support of the lawsuit.
In a 2018 friend-of-the-court brief, the AMA said, “There is significant risk that AHPs could disproportionately impact individuals with pre-existing conditions. To be sure, on its face, the regulation states that it protects coverage of preexisting conditions. In reality, AHPs can easily evade that crucial legal requirement by using proxies for health status.”
Bevin: He was denied insurance based on a preexisting condition while Steve Beshear was governor
Not for the first time, Bevin said that he was denied health insurance due to a preexisting condition, which he said gives him “empathy” rather than just “sympathy” for people experiencing that.
Bevin told reporters after the debate that he and his family were denied insurance because they were in the process of adopting a child. He said he signed up for coordination-of-benefits insurance and was approved, but his family waited more than a year to receive their insurance cards.
When he went back to the insurance company, he said, his family was told they had been denied because he had indicated on the paperwork that they were adopting a child.
Beshear: Bevin promised to release his tax returns and never did
Beshear, as he often has, noted that Bevin has not released his tax returns since becoming governor. He said that during Bevin’s 2015 campaign, he promised to release his tax returns if he was elected.
This is not quite true. Bevin made a noncommittal statement in 2015 about releasing tax returns that he quickly walked back. Asked in a 2015 interview with Spectrum News, then known as CN2, about releasing his returns, he said, “When I’m governor, sure. I mean, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Later, a campaign spokeswoman said Bevin’s statement was “in no way, shape or form a promise.”
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Bailey Vandiver, a University of Kentucky journalism student, is covering the 2019 gubernatorial race for The State Journal. Colleague Emily Laytham contributed to this analysis.