Kentucky: Kiss Kynect Goodbye. Bevin to pull the plug by end of 2016.

Unlike the federal exchange (HealthCare.gov) and many of the state-based exchanges which have experienced massive technical problems to some degree or another over the past two years (Oregon, Nevada and Hawaii have gone kaput; Massachusetts & Maryland had to be completely rebuilt; Vermonts is still iffy),  the Kentucky ACA exchange website, aka "kynect" (lower-case intentional), has been chugging along smoothly since Day One on October 1, 2013. It's fully self-sufficient, well known and trusted by Kentuckians, and has been an amazingly successful venture in general.

So naturally...

Speaking in his first public comments since he was elected governor of Kentucky on Tuesday, Matt Bevin repeated his pledge to dismantle kynect, the state’s health insurance exchange that has been hailed as a national model.

“My intent is to have it wound down by the end of next year,” Bevin said of the online service people use to shop for health coverage or determine whether they are eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

...Instead of using kynect, Bevin said he will transition people to the federal site, Healthcare.gov, to shop for insurance.

As for his reasoning?

Bevin said many states never created a health exchange and Kentucky simply doesn’t need one.

“It adds no value,” he said. “It is a redundancy.”

Well, he's correct, I suppose. Many states don't have the St. Louis Arch either, so I guess Missouri should get rid of that as well.

Anyway, a round of applause to Matt Bevin for making sure to announce his decision to shut down the kynect exchange a year from now right in the middle of this year's Open Enrollment season. I'm sure the morale of everyone working at kynect is through the roof right now as they try to help people enroll in health insurance policies...