Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/series/coronavirus-covid-kentucky-2020/)
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads through Kentucky, we bring you the latest on death rates, risks of reopening and how it was affecting the commonwealth’s most vulnerable.
The most recent federal coronavirus relief package finally grants states that option, but it will have no effect in Kentucky. That’s because debt forgiveness still isn’t allowed under state law.
Since Kentucky’s first COVID-19 patient was confirmed nearly a month ago, cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus have continued to increase in the state. Along with that increase in cases comes an increase in questions:
How many cases are there around me? How many people in my community have died? How do other health issues increase the risk of serious illness due to coronavirus in my community? These questions are hard to answer right now due to the speed at which data are being reported.
People in rural areas are typically sicker, older and have less access to regular healthcare than other communities.
KyCIR has documented the unemployment office’s hurried steps to make payments quickly as the pandemic shut down businesses in the spring.
As some Republican legislators are unsatisfied with the program’s results and call for it to be defunded, the program’s director says it’s still saving lives.
The federal government set aside $7 billion in 2009 to modernize the nation’s unemployment systems. Kentucky left its portion on the table.
Education professionals can’t claim unemployment during the summer break that started in Louisville on May 31, a caveat the state doesn’t appear to have made clear when it extended benefits to substitute teachers. Subs who continued to file for unemployment after summer break began are now expected to repay anything the state paid in error.
The shrinking economic safety net and politics of the moment complicate an otherwise straightforward public health decision.
“These people don’t have that money. They paid for groceries, they used the money,” Sen. Nemes said. “That’s what unemployment is for. When you are unemployed you get your unemployment insurance and you pay your bills so you can get back to work.”
Gov. Andy Beshear acknowledged that Kentucky mistakenly overpaid people who requested unemployment benefits — and advised recipients to save that money.