Each week, LINK nky is publishing a profile of one of our local legislators so that Northern Kentuckians can get to know the people representing them at the state level.
Rep. Rachel Roberts was first elected to her Kentucky District 67 House seat in 2020 to fill the unexpired term of former Rep. Dennis Keene. Days after she took office in March, COVID-19 changed life as she and everyone else knew it.
“The world shut down,” Roberts told LINK nky.
The Kentucky General Assembly continued to meet in session that winter but it was far from business as usual. Leadership held down the floor while many members sent their votes to the chamber from their legislative offices to reduce exposure to the virus. Votes that typically take less than a minute or two to tally trickled in gradually. Everyone, including new members like Roberts, had to adapt.
It didn’t take long for her to get acclimated.
The small business owner from Newport went on to win the seat a second time that fall, followed by a second full term in 2022. Then, last December, Roberts became one of only six women ever elected to a leadership position in the chamber when Democrats elected her House Minority Whip. Now she’s looking toward 2024.
Roberts announced Dec. 20 that the 2024 legislative session will be her last representing the district. She decided against running for reelection after initially filing as a candidate in next year’s primary. But she doesn’t intend to be a lame duck the final year of her term.
This session, Roberts tells LINK she wants to pass legislation to improve mental health care statewide. A priority of hers is to require that insurers cover an annual mental health checkup at 100 percent cost, just as they do for annual physicals. It’s part of a mental health parity proposal that Roberts said she is pulling from her work as Vice Chair of the health care committee of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators.
The legislation, she said, has three primary goals: erase the stigma of mental health care, build patient-provider relationships, and improve general access to mental health care.
“The idea here would be that number one, we would normalize mental health care. Number two, to make sure that people have a trusted provider so when they perhaps get to a moment of need in their lifetime they’re not relying on a stranger. They know who to call for assistance. And number three, and perhaps most importantly, it’s a way to entice providers to come to the state and have a built-in client base to begin their practice,” she told LINK. “We have a real shortage of mental health care providers in the state. So my hope is that this would be a way to help not only entice people to come but, for the people we train, to get them to stay in Kentucky.”
Roberts also wants to pass a bill this session that requires health insurers to create a special enrollment period for pregnant individuals. A similar bill made it out of the House Banking and Insurance Committee in 2023 but stalled after it was reassigned to the House budget committee in late March. That bill (House Bill 286) was a bipartisan measure introduced by lead sponsors Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville, and Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill.
Roberts said she expects to see “bipartisan interest for a positive outcome” on maternal health issues again this year.
“We tend to have a lot of bills that operate in the same sphere because we are hearing the same needs from our constituents since our districts are intertwined. I am always happy to work with anyone who has a shared interest in the health care of our communities,” she told LINK.
Any issue that affects her district (and that includes talk of changing the certificate of need process, or CON: “My biggest concern around CON should something change is making sure whatever playing field we choose is equitable”) has Roberts’ attention, said the legislator. She told LINK she intends to do her best for the district.
Said Roberts: “I was taught that when you have the capacity to do more for your community, it’s not only your duty but it’s a duty you undertake with great joy.”
Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) represents northwestern Campbell County in Kentucky’s 67th House District. She is a member of both the House Committee on Committees and Rules Committee as well as the House Small Business and Information Technology Committee, Banking and Insurance Committee, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Committee, and Transportation Committee. Additionally, she is a member of the statutory Legislative Research Commission along with the interim joint committees on Tourism, Small Business, and Information Technology, Banking and Insurance, and Transportation. Roberts also serves as a member of several legislative caucuses.