For the first time since Gov. John Kasich won national attention by supporting Medicaid expansion, a clear picture is emerging on how the Republican governor’s compromise with federal regulators could work.
Some uninsured Ohioans would be enrolled in the state’s traditional Medicaid program, while others would sign up for private health insurance using federal funding, said Greg Moody, director of Ohio’s Office of Health Transformation.
The proposal, which Kasich hopes to sell to GOP lawmakers reluctant to support an outright Medicaid expansion, has been dubbed “The Ohio Plan.” And it differs from the standard federal expansion program on one crucial point: It puts some enrollees in the private insurance market.
“We have a little bit of flexibility,” Moody said late last week after testifying in the Ohio Senate.
Kasich’s administration began negotiating the alternative plan with federal officials months ago, hoping to create a compromise that would enable Republican states like Ohio — and Arkansas — to expand Medicaid on their own terms.
The expansion of Medicaid, a federal-state insurance program for the poor, is a cornerstone of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But in June 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court said states could chose whether to adopt the Medicaid expansion. Since then, expansion has become one of the most contentious political battles in states nationwide.
Conservatives, long opponents of so-called federal health reform, are fighting expansion of the social program and the federal spending to support it. The GOP-controlled Ohio House removed Kasich’s proposed expansion from the state budget bill, but last week added an amendment that allows discussion of Medicaid “reform” to continue, which has raised hopes that the legislature eventually will sign off on a compromise.
The federal government would pay the full tab, 100 percent, for three years for the newly qualified individuals. After that, the federal government would cover 95 percent and phase down to 90 percent. Ohio stands to get $13 billion in federal funding.
While Kasich’s administration still supports a full expansion of Medicaid, saying it would be fiscally beneficial, it has switched in recent days to lobbying for The Ohio Plan after facing fierce opposition from conservatives in the House, Moody said.
This latest proposal would allow all adults, including those without children, who earn up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level to enroll in an extension of Ohio’s current Medicaid program. That’s $11,490 for a single adult, $15,510 for a couple and $23,550 for a family of four.
For those earning between 100 to 138 percent, largely considered to be the ones holding down low-paying jobs, the state would use Medicaid funds to pay for their premiums, also called “premium assistance,” and ask them to enroll in a private insurance plan through a statewide health insurance exchange.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online News
