Ohio Governor John Kasich chaired the U.S. House budget committee in the mid 1990s.And he has a warning for lawmakers involved in the federal budget discussions. Kasich says if federal lawmakers plan cuts to Medicaid, he hopes governors will be consulted. He says the states will bear the brunt, and Medicaid recipients may see their benefits cut.
Meanwhile a new report by two nonpartisan groups, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute, shows expanding Medicaid eligibility in Ohio under the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of uninsured residents by half. It would cost the state an additional 3.1 billion dollars in the next decade. If the state changes Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the poverty line or below, 457-thousand uninsured Ohioans would gain health care coverage by 2022. 2.2 million Ohioans currently participate in the program. State officials are still trying to figure out how to pay Ohio's share of the increase.
