Ohio Dems: John Kasich’s Policies Bad Medicine for Ohio Women

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 14 -- The Ohio Democratic Party issued the following news release:

This morning, the Kasich-Taylor campaign released an ad featuring Dr. Alice Epitropoulos, in which she claimed that the Kasich Administration's policies were favorable to women's health, completely misleading on Kasich's awful record on women's issues that has received national attention throughout his first term. What the Kasich campaign did not disclose in its ad was that, regardless of the stethoscope she is wearing, Dr. Epitropoulos is not a general practitioner, nor does she practice women's health. Instead, she is a registered Republican, a Kasich contributor, and an eye surgeon.

Dr. Epitropoulos donated to Kasich's campaign in 2010 after the Strickland Administration liquidated the health insurance company she was running because it was financially insolvent. [Source: Columbus Dispatch (8/21/2009), "Physicians' Assurance Corp. liquidated"; Secretary of State's Campaign Finance Database Website (accessed 10/14/2014), Dr. Alice Epitropoulos donation to Kasich Taylor for Ohio on 5/18/2010]

In response to Governor Kasich's misleading ad on his record on women's health issues, Ohio Democratic Party Communications Director Meredith Tucker released the following statement:

"In just his first term, Governor Kasich packed the State Medical Board with anti-choice leaders, fought in federal court to block women from getting insurance coverage for contraceptive care, placed a gag order on rape crisis centers, blocked public hospitals from arranging required transfer agreements with women's health clinics, and made it harder for Planned Parenthood, the most successful organization that provides breast and cervical cancer screenings, from getting state funding. Regardless of Kasich's misleading ad, Ohioans are well aware that 100,000 women who now have access to health care in Ohio is due to President Obama's Affordable Care Act, a law that Governor Kasich adamantly opposed during his 2010 campaign. "

BACKGROUND

Reuters: Kasich Budget "Allows Public Funding For Rape Crisis Clinics To Be Suspended If They Counsel Victims On Abortion Options" According to Reuters "The provision effectively strips funding from Planned Parenthood, blocks public hospitals from arranging transfer agreements with abortion clinics and requires abortion providers to provide ultra sounds on women seeking abortions. It also allows public funding for rape crisis clinics to be suspended if they counsel victims on abortion options." [Reuters, 6/30/13]

Cincinnati Rape Crisis Center Founder: "Passage Of Budget Shows That Legislators Don't Care About Women Or Children." According to Jill W. Bley, founder of Women Helping Women/ Cincinnati Rape Crisis Center, in an article appearing in the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Their (Ohio Republicans) action trampled on the First Amendment freedom of speech by threatening to take away state funding if a rape-crisis advocate mentions abortion to a woman. The "budget" requires a woman to have an ultrasound... defunds Planned Parenthood for non-abortion-related family-planning money; and bars public hospitals from having transfer agreements with abortion clinics, forcing the clinics to try to make agreements with private hospitals. Most private hospitals are owned by religious organizations opposed to abortions. They are trying to get rid of Planned Parenthood, which provides family-planning information and contraceptives to everyone. Family planning dramatically reduces the number of abortions. They claim that they want to reduce spending, but they are requiring an ultrasound, an unnecessary medical procedure that someone has to pay for. They claim that they are not waging a war on women, but they deny them their right to choose and their right to safe medical care and treat women as if they are nadve children by forcing them to have an ultrasound, for which there is no medical reason. They lie about scientific evidence concerning women, which has been a method used to support their religious and anti-woman beliefs for decades. [Cincinnati Enquirer, 7/12/13]

Abortion clinics struggling to stay open under new rules, even in Ohio's large cities, advocate says: Both cases are related to a requirement that all ambulatory surgical centers in Ohio -- regardless of what procedures they provide -- have a patient transfer agreement with a local hospital in the event complications arise. An ambulatory center may also apply for a waiver, but must get its alternative plan approved by the state Health Department. But the rules for abortion clinics changed in 2013 with passage of the state budget bill. Included in that bill was language forbidding public hospitals from entering into transfer agreements with abortion clinics. [Plain Dealer, 8/15/2014]

Governor's Funding Cuts Make It Harder For Poor Women To Receive Basic Health Services: "One provision shoehorned into the budget pushes Planned Parenthood to the back of the line for state money for preventative health grants, behind local public health departments that often don't have the same expertise or experience in providing breast and cervical screenings and reproductive care. This will make it harder for women, especially poorer women, to receive basic health services." [The Plain Dealer, 7/13/13]

Doctors Say Kasich is Making it Harder to Give Their Best Medical Advice to Expectant Mothers: "Some doctors say new laws limiting abortions in Ohio are interfering with the care they give women facing heartbreaking circumstances. Even those who oppose abortion say that before giving their best medical advice, they may need to call a lawyer...'Doctors can't give their best advice in some situations because of possible repercussions of the law,' Dr. Phil Cass, chief executive officer of the Columbus Medical Association," [Columbus Dispatch, 2/9/2014]

* And Even Pro-Life Doctors Agree: "..doctors -- even those who personally oppose abortion -- now feel they must consult a lawyer before dispensing medical advice to their patients....'Nobody likes to end a pregnancy for a fetal problem,' [Dr.] Melillo said. 'But it's worse to leave a patient without medical care because doctors are afraid of violating the law.'" [Salon, 2/21/2014]

Kasich Has Failed to Promote Medicaid Expansion: Ohio'sDepartment of Job and Family services still doesn't promote expanded Medicaid eligibility requirements on their websites, which would make health care coverage available to thousands of an Ohioans. [ODJFS Website]

Kasich's most recent biennium budget contained "the most onerous restrictions on reproductive rights in the country." The new budget "plays politics with Ohio women's freedom and health by effectively forcing clinics that perform abortions to close, and by denying public money to rape crisis centers that counsel sex-assault victims about abortion.

"The budget relegates Planned Parenthood, which provides the only health care that many Ohio women get, to the back of the line for federal funding of family planning services. The medical experts in the legislature declare in the budget that a fetus develops "from the moment of conception" and dictate to doctors, under penalty of prosecution, how they must treat pregnant patients." [Source: Toledo Blade editorial (7/7/2013), "Statehouse gang throws Ohio in reverse."]

Kasich appoint members of Ohio Right to Life to the State Medical Board. A guest columnist highlighted how "Gov. John Kasich is undermining the medical board and the medical profession in two troubling ways" with the State budget and a trio of appointments to the State Medical Board. [Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer (12/21/2013), "Gov. Kasich undermines State Medical Board with pro-life appointments."]

Kasich's additional funding for cervical and breast cancer screening estimated to generate only about $600,000 a year. HB 112, which Kasich signed into law back in July 2013, allows taxpayers to donate a part of their refund to fund screenings with the State matching the donation. "The [Ohio income tax return] check-off is expected to generate more than $150,000 for screenings, and Kasich announced that the state would provide a three-to-one match for contributions, up to $1 million." With the State match, that would mean HB 112 is expected to raise $600,000. [Source: Youngstown Vindicator (10/26/2013), "Kasich touts new funding for breast, cervical cancer screenings."]

The 100,000 Ohio women who have gotten health insurance who previously lacked it is due to the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid and virtually all of the funding for it comes from the federal government. "More than 153,000 Ohio women between the ages of 19 and 44 could gain health insurance coverage if Ohio expands the Medicaid program under health reform." [Source: Policy Matters Ohio (5/2013), "Mothers and Medicaid."]

Before taking office, Governor-elect John Kasich said "ObamaCare must be blocked." In November 2010, then Governor-elect John Kasich signed a Tea Party supported State constitutional amendment to try to block the Affordable Care Act. In touting his support, Governor-elect Kasich said: "Obamacare must be blocked ... Ohioans deserve a solution to health care that doesn't bring more big government." [Source: Hocking Hills Tea Party Website (11/9/2010), "Governor-elect, John Kasich Signs the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment."]

Ohio women reportedly earn 77 cents for every dollar a male earns in the State. "In Ohio, a woman who holds a full-time job is paid, on average, $35,984 per year while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $46,789 per year. This means that women in Ohio are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly wage gap of $10,805 between men and women who work full time in the state." [Source: National Partnership for Women & Families Fact Sheet (4/2014), "Ohio Women and the Wage Gap."]

In 2009, the Strickland Administration liquidated Dr. Epitropoulos health insurance company due to its poor finances. The Ohio Department of Insurance successfully sued The Physicians Assurance Corporation in Franklin County Common Pleas Court and obtain an order for its liquidation due to its poor finances. [Source: Ohio Department of Insurance Fact Sheet (8/26/2009).] The failure of the insurance company left 350 central Ohio employers scrambling to find new health insurance carriers. [Source: Columbus Dispatch (8/21/2009), "Physicians' Assurance Corp. liquidated"] The roughly 100 investors in the failed insurance company, mostly physicians, lost an estimated $5.6 million in the venture. [Source: Columbus Business First (8/24/2009)]

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