Taylor defends Medicaid action [Daily Record, The (Wooster, OH)]

WOOSTER -- While most of the Republicans serving in the Ohio House of Representatives oppose Gov. John Kasich's decision to move forward with Medicaid expansion through the Controlling Board, it was a move that was always on the table.

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, in Wooster Thursday for the inaugural Wayne Economic Forum, sat down with The Daily Record for a one-on-one interview in which she talked about Medicaid expansion, the difficulties involved with the rollout of the HealthCare.gov website and Kasich's likely opponent in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, a Celina Republican, indicated Kasich must have the necessary votes or else he would not have moved ahead.

Taylor, though, is unsure.

"I don't have a crystal ball, but I do have an Eight Ball," she said.

While 39 of the 60 House Republicans signed a letter of protest to Kasich using the Controlling Board to expand Medicaid, providing coverage for all Ohioans who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level that will be paid for mostly with federal funds, Taylor said the option was always on the table.

"This, for us, has always been an option," Taylor said. "We believed we could do it. It was always on the table."

State Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican, has opposed Medicaid expansion, preferring to accomplish similar goals through other means, and he was among those signing the letter.

Kasich made Medicaid expansion, which had been part of the Affordable Care Act until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could decide for themselves whether to expand the program, part of his new two-year budget, but it was removed by the House Finance Committee, for which Amstutz serves as chairman.

The governor wanted to grant certain populations a level of health care, and without expansion, they will get left behind, Taylor said.

Ed FitzGerald, Cuyahoga County's executive and Democratic hopeful for governor, recently met with editors of Dix Newspapers. During the meeting, he criticized Kasich for not having enough influence over his own caucus, as Republicans have pushed back on Medicaid expansion.

Taylor was not surprised by FitzGerald's comments, but noted even though there is some diverse opinions as to Medicaid expansion, Kasich worked with Republicans to balance the state's budget and get rid of an $8 billion structural deficit while cutting, not raising, taxes. Their efforts to work together to create JobsOhio, a public- private economic development arm of the state, has been a success, she said.

FitzGerald has criticized the secrecy surrounding JobsOhio and wants more transparency.

While neither Kasich nor Taylor support the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, the federal dollars that will be used to fund the Medicaid expansion will include tax money paid by Ohioans, and Taylor said the administration wants to bring that money back home.

As for trouble with people signing up for the health care exchanges, Taylor said she was not surprised. She serves as director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, and when her office tried to send insurance databases to the federal servers, "We had significant problems uploading and transferring information," Taylor said. "There were delays and all kinds of errors. The system crashed, and in some cases, it took over a week for all of the plans' information to upload."

Reporter Bobby Warren can be reached at 330-287-1639 or [email protected] He is @BobbyWarrenTDR on Twitter.