Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich says the U.S. Senate needs to fix its version of a bill to overhaul the Affordable Care Act with bipartisan cooperation.
On CNN Sunday, Kasich repeated his claims the Senate's version of the American Health Care Act will "significantly" curtail Medicaid funding and could harm treatment for the mentally ill, the chronically ill and those who are drug addicted.
He says the Senate's phase out of Medicaid expansion is an improvement. Meanwhile, a new report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families shows 40 percent of rural Ohio kids rely on Medicaid for health care, compared with 36 percent in urban areas. Center director Joan Alker says the study also shows the benefits of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Alker says in 2015, there were 17 percent more Ohio children on Medicaid living in rural communities than in 2009. Alker says protects families from medical debt and bankruptcy, and funds rural health centers and hospitals. And a new analysis of Congressional Budget Office data shows the top 3 percent of American earners stand to get 660 billion in tax cuts under the proposed American Health Care Act. The analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows Ohio millionaires could see an average tax cut of nearly 27 thousand dollars a year. Institute spokesperson Alan Essig.
Under the Affordable Care Act, low- and moderate-income Americans have been able to get coverage due to a tax on individuals making more than 200 thousand dollars a year. That would end under the GOP bill.
