yarmuth left. when tennessee had tencare, a lot of residents were coming into the state and the kentucky co-op did close. the kentucky approval rating of the obamacare products in the marketplace is really quite low. as was evidenced in that state. this week. ms. cohen, i want to come to you. were you in the room for the first panel? dr. cohen: i was. representative: what happened with the loans and the solvency grants? we all should be concerned about that. that is not your money to give away. it is taxpayer money. this is just money down the hole. this did not work. to go in here and here from the co-ops that they now have these loan conversion options, start up loans, classified as assets rather than debt, i do not see how you get there. doesn't that type of loan conversion really give a false picture of what is going on in that co-op? is that not a falsehood? dr. cohen: when talking about those conversions, we evaluated each of those on an individual basis. i think you heard it mentioned that,

joining me now is congressman john yarmuth, democrat from kentucky, one of the most vocal supportersre in the state. so congressman, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. what is the governor-elect going to do with obamacare in kentucky? >> reverend al good to be with you. matt bevin has proven month after month during his campaign that he really has no idea what the affordable care act is intended to do and structured. he doesn't understand the difference between medicaid and medicare. he wants to dismantle the kentucky exchange which is odd for someone who is so disdainful of the federal government and obamacare. why would you want to put people in kentucky in a federal program when we have a customized kentucky program which is proven to be incredibly successful. we now have seven different insurance companies offering coverage to our consumers and if you abolish connect and go in the federal exchange not only would the choices be reduced but also more expensive for them. >> that's what's confusing to me, because if he dismantles connect, people can then go over any way into the federa

one democrat who didn't joins us now, democratic congressman from kentucky, john yarmuth. good to see you, good morning to you. good morning. good to see you, too. >> so 47 democrats voted on the other side opposite of you. what does that say to you? >> well, it says to me that emotions are really high, surrounding the paris attacks that the people in congress are getting a lot of demand to do something. i think this was the wrong response, and i think we'll see some responses that actually make more sense like dealing with the visa waiver program so that people can't automatically come with a european passport without being vetted, but this is again i think emotions are running very high, people know that this was a difficult vote to explain, and i was really proud of the 135 democrats who voted against this bill, which basically was just another way of saying christian only refugees because it was limited to syria and iraq refugees. that made no sense to any of us and i think it was as a guest i think you had earlier on today said that this is exactly what isis wants. th

yarmuth left. i think it's important to note in kentucky, when tennessee had 10 care, a lot of kentucky resident come into the state to try to get health care and the kentucky co-ops did close and kentucky approval rating of the obamacare products that are in the marketplace is really quite low. as was evidenced in the state. dr. cohen, i want to come to you. i had commissioner mcpeak here. were you in the room for the first panel? okay. i'm really concerned about what has happened with taxpayers and the liability they are with, with what took place with the loans and then the solvency grants. and we all should be concerned with it. that is not your money to give away. it is taxpayers money. and this is just money down the hole. it appears. because this didn't work. and to going here and here from the co-ops that they now have the loan conversion options, startup loans, classified as assets rather than that, and i don't see how you get there. doesn't that type of loan conversion really give a false

yarmuth: that is why it is so important and that is what happened to kentucky's co-op. it lost $50 million in its first year. of 2015, itd half slowed down to a rate of $4 million. they were on track to make a profit in 2016. unfortunately, when the program was cut by 87%, they were unable to continue. is it your understanding that had congress not capped payment that the kentucky health cooperative would still be open for business? dr. cohen: i think a number of factors contributed. that was one of the last. certainly, we have heard it was an important factor for them. you have to know that there are many factors, as we have been talking about all along. as i mentioned before, that having been said, is it your understanding that, even without the co-op, kentucky residents will still have more health insurers to choose from than they had in prior years? dr. cohen: yes. very exciting. i can talk about the success of the affordable care act in kentucky. we are a much healthier state because of it. someone threw around a figure that maybe the approval rating was down. in k

yarmuth: that is why it is so important and that is what happened to kentucky's co-op. it lost $50 million in its first year. of 2015, itd half slowed down to a rate of $4 million. they were on track to make a profit in 2016. unfortunately, when the program was cut by 87%, they were unable to continue. is it your understanding that had congress not capped payment that the kentucky health cooperative would still be open for business? dr. cohen: i think a number of factors contributed. that was one of the last. certainly, we have heard it was an important factor for them. you have to know that there are many factors, as we have been talking about all along. as i mentioned before, that having been said, is it your understanding that, even without the co-op, kentucky residents will still have more health insurers to choose from than they had in prior years? dr. cohen: yes. very exciting. i can talk about the success of the affordable care act in kentucky. we are a much healthier state because of it. someone threw around a figure that maybe the approval rating was down. in k

yarmuth for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, welcome to the witnesses. i can help dr. bucshon out on the background of the co-ops. one of the things we faced when we were drafting legislation was this in certain states the availability of private insurance was limited to one provider or i think in alabama there was blue cross/blue shield dominated 90% of the market. in many states that was the situation the idea was to create competition and the only way to do it was to create a new entity that we chose, co-ops. and the idea was that you could create the kind of price the excision that was meaningful. we knew in kentucky when the co-op was established and i talked with them that they were getting started that they had no idea what kind of insured population they were going to have. they had no data to predict that. they didn't know how many would enroll or how many would have never had any health care so automatically once they became ensured they would have a rush of care, try to treat things they had never been able to treat before or whether they were going to get p

yarmuth's district. he ran in the presidential year and had over 200,000 votes. in nonpresidential year he had, what, 170,000 votes. something like that. over 150,000 votes. that was one year ago. t was about turnout. we have to increase turnout. if the turnout had been digger the election would have been different. but anyway, we don't argue nice, we organize. that's what we have to do whether it's in the south, the midwest, suburban areas, rural areas. in the west. it's about showing people the connection, as martin luther king said, between the ballot, legislation, and their lives. and that just has not been done sufficiently. >> president obama seems, there's a lot of worry in democratic groups, that mobilization is not there to the level it was? ms. pelosi: presidential year is a big year. it's not there as in 12, yeah. because the presidential race is a big event. it has everything. it has glamour, it has money, it has power. t's an attraction. are not -- you're just waiting for enext show. as i've said to you before and you've heard us talk about it in a f