# Lexington Herald-Leader fact-checks what Dembo and Alvarao would do about healthcare access **Published:** 2026-09-28T19:34:44.000Z **Source:** [Kentucky Health News](https://kyhealthnews.net/2026/09/28/lexington-herald-leader-fact-checks-what-dembo-and-alvarao-would-do-about-healthcare-access/) **Republished from:** [Kentucky Health News](https://kyhealthnews.net/2026/09/28/lexington-herald-leader-fact-checks-what-dembo-and-alvarao-would-do-about-healthcare-access/) (Authorized by publisher (with credit)) **Canonical:** https://kyhealthnews.net/2026/09/28/lexington-herald-leader-fact-checks-what-dembo-and-alvarao-would-do-about-healthcare-access/ By Melissa Patrick, [Kentucky Health News](https://kyhealthnews.net) · September 28, 2026  As part of a fact-checking series in the **Lexington Herald-Leader**, John Cheves [reports](https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article317323616.html) in detail about what the two major party candidates for Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District would do about healthcare access and affordability. Cheves reports that former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo, a Democrat, recently laid out a five-point healthcare plan at a news conference in Paris that includes: - Reversing the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next decade that are part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. - Restoring the premium subsidies that Congress let expire Jan. 1 that made insurance less expensive for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. - Requiring price transparency for medical procedures so patients will know in advance exactly what they’ll be expected to pay. - Authorizing the federal government’s Medicaid and Medicare programs to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription drug prices across the board. - Adding a “public option,” a government-backed health insurance plan to compete with private insurers for people who either don’t like their employer’s plan or don’t have access to an employer’s plan. Republican Ralph Alvarado, a Winchester doctor and former Kentucky state senator, did not respond to requests for comment for this story, Cheves reports. However, Cheves goes on to report that Alvarado, being a doctor, has had plenty to say about healthcare, writing that while he was in the **Kentucky General Assembly** and working as a medical director for “several low-rated nursing homes,” he sponsored bills to make it harder for people to sue for malpractice. Further, Cheves reports that Alvarado describes himself as a Make America Healthy Again advocate; has said he supports vaccinations, but does not think people should be forced to take them; supports healthcare price transparency; supports greather use of “concierge medicine”; and has said he talked to **U.S. Health and Human Services** Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. about states having more control over their healthcare spending. ## Sources - [Kentucky Health News](https://kyhealthnews.net/2026/09/28/lexington-herald-leader-fact-checks-what-dembo-and-alvarao-would-do-about-healthcare-access/)