By AP
Louisville, KY – Kentucky is among 15 states where some eligible people can't get a new federal tax credit that pays a portion of their health insurance premiums.
The credit took effect a year ago, but Kentucky doesn't have a health insurer that sells a qualifying plan.
The health coverage tax credit is meant to help people who lost their jobs because of foreign competition or whose pension benefits were picked up by the government after a company failure. It's part of a trade act President Bush signed into law in 2002.
An estimated 4,400 people in Kentucky are eligible.
Insurers have worried that people seeking credit might have higher medical costs than the premiums they can charge. To address that concern, the Kentucky general assembly passed a measure last spring lifting the 35% cap for people eligible for the credit