The Medicaid expansion in Ohio is good health care, good sense, and good for the state’s economy.
The expansion of Medicaid – under what has come to be called “Obamacare,” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – will clear the way for Ohioans, by the hundreds of thousands, to gain greater access to health care in addition to garnering a much needed windfall for Ohio’s economy.
With the constitutional legitimacy of the ACA being called into question, in June of 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the states would have the right to expand Medicaid or “opt out.” The bold new future of health care is now andOhio is on the clock.
Gov. Kasich will soon be introducing his second budget and expected to be on it will be the call for Medicaid expansion. We are advising that all partisan politics be discarded in favor of what’s best forOhio.
With the expansion, Medicaid will pay for most of the people who otherwise would have received health care entirely at the county’s expense. Counties could then reduce or reinvest those former health care costs.
Right now the state covers adults with dependents up to 90 percent of the national poverty level. With the Medicaid expansion, for three years, the federal government will pay 100 percent for the new people qualifying. That scale will slide down to 90 percent paid by the federal government afterwards.
This type of increase of access to health care would provide coverage for members ofOhio’s Black community that would have normally gone without health care or health-care coverage – a cost that would have been picked up by the county and passed on to tax payers in one form or another.
This expansion would mean that Blacks inOhio, who didn’t have insurance, will now be able to get proper checkups. Those who would normally never see a doctor until being rushed to the emergency room will now be able to take advantage of health screenings and other forms of preventive care.
The Medicaid expansion inOhiois good health care, good sense, and good for the state’s economy. A healthierOhiowill inevitably lead to a healthier economy. It also presents a win-win situation forOhio’s employers. The health of its employee is a positive for the fiscal bottom line for business.
The Call and Post stands behind this expansion and hopes that this will be a done deal without party politics.
