Okay Ohio! State lawmakers can't pull rug on Medicaid

Governor John Kasich won his face off with Ohio state legislators who would not take a vote on his veto of the repeal of Medicaid expansion, to help care for Ohio citizens. More to the point, the Ohio hospitals surely wouldn't support such a terrible repeal. Their budgets are already inclusive of the patient revenues  Thereofore, at least for the time being, the Medicaid expansion in Ohio will stay, thanks to the good judgement of Governor John Kasich. 

"Kasich is among the most vocal Republicans nationally in support of the Medicaid expansion"

Although the state legislators did override several of the Medicaid provisions in the expansion, the fact is, Federal waivers will be necessary to implement the legislators' actions and that would take time.  Meanwhile, the people most impacted by the Medicaid repeal will have an opportunity to vote those selfish Republicans out of office, because of their cruel policy decisions.

Ohio Governor John Kasich has the best healthy interest of everyone as his legislative goal.

We can only pray for Governor John Kasich to prevail against opposition,  because he has the best interest of all Ohio people, including the fiscal well being of health care organizations, as his legislative goal.

By Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich's veto protecting Medicaid expansion will stand, at least, for now, following a decision by state lawmakers on Thursday, to delay a threatened override.

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a fellow Republican, said his chamber has decided to let the health care debate in Washington play out before acting. He said the GOP-controlled chamber had the 60 votes that would have been needed.

"At this juncture, we want to give the federal government the summer to see if they're going to come to a conclusion in Congress before we take action on moving forward with the freeze waiver and the request," Rosenberger said.

He said the House still has until the end of Ohio's two-year legislative session in December 2018 to act. With House action stalled, the Ohio Senate canceled a session for considering overrides that it had scheduled for next week.

The House did vote Thursday to override 11 other items that Kasich vetoed from the state budget Friday. They restored a provision giving legislators additional control over future Medicaid spending and revived the Healthy Ohio program, which imposes additional Medicaid requirements that could bump 125,000 people off the program.

They also restored a proposal to increase taxes on health insurers that would have sent money to counties and regional bus services, a hike that administration officials warned later Thursday could risk drawing attention that jeopardizes a bigger chunk of money and creating a $615 million loss for Medicaid.

Of the largest consequence, however, was a provision vetoed by Kasich that ordered him to seek federal permission to suspend enrollment under the expansion beginning July 1, 2018, and to prevent those who drop out of the health care program from re-enrolling.

Some 700,000 low-income adults are now covered under Ohio's expansion, at a cost of almost $5 billion — most of which is picked up by the federal government. The Kasich administration estimated that 500,000 Ohioans could lose coverage under the proposed enrollment freeze within the first 18 months.

Kasich praised House members and advocates who worked to avert the enrollment freeze, if temporarily, but he warned "risks remain."

"A number of the actions taken by the House today threaten health care access for vulnerable Ohioans including seniors, people with disabilities, veterans and children, as well as Ohio's hard-won budget stability," he said in a statement. "When these actions begin to impact health care access for Ohioans, those who supported them will bear responsibility. As the saying goes: if you break it, you own it."

Kasich is among the most vocal Republicans nationally in support of the Medicaid expansion, an option made available to states under the Affordable Care Act targeted for replacement by the party. He was forced to make an initial end-run around reluctant GOP lawmakers to bring the expansion to the state, and has continued to advocate it as a program beneficial to the most vulnerable citizens.

Ohio receives some $300 million through the program for drug addiction and mental illness, which Kasich has described as an important funding source for the state hardest hit by the national opiate crisis.