EDITORIAL: No retreat from the Medicaid expansion

Akron Beacon Journal (OH)

Feb. 22--Where are the problems with the Affordable Care Act? They mostly can be found in the individual market, or the exchanges where insurers offer health insurance to those who do not receive coverage through their employer, Medicare or Medicaid. Here the structure requires repair, say, making the subsidies larger or providing young people with greater incentive to sign up.

This focus on the actual problems serves to reinforce the sound assessment of John Kasich during a CNN appearance over the weekend. The governor argued it would be a "very, very bad idea" for Republicans in charge of Congress to phase out federal funding for the Medicaid expansion, which has brought health coverage to 700,000 Ohioans with low incomes.

The expansion works, improving the quality of lives, achieving objectives such as putting an emphasis on gaining employment. The expansion hardly rates as excessive, Medicaid now available to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. That's an annual income of $16,400 for an individual and $27,800 for a single parent with two children.

"We cannot turn our back on the most vulnerable," the governor declared, adding that stepping away "makes no sense." He has seen the healthy impact in Ohio.

As Wendy Patton of Policy Matters Ohio notes in a recent analysis, the share of uninsured among those up to 138 percent of poverty has decreased dramatically -- from 32.4 percent to 14.1 percent, helping to reduce the overall uninsured rate to its lowest level in two decades. The largest share of beneficiaries is white and male, a useful factor given the recent narrowing in the average lifespan of middle-aged white males.

A report by the state Department of Medicaid found that the health coverage makes it easier for recipients to search for work and to keep their jobs. No surprise that the coverage invites greater financial stability. Those suffering from mental illness have improved access to medication, other treatment and productive lives.

The arrival of new federal money has proved helpful to local economies. The $20.4 million in Summit County has resulted, among other things, in less uncompensated care, improving the finances of hospitals. The funding also has freed local dollars to aid in addressing the heroin epidemic.

Roughly 36,000 people in Summit County benefit directly from the expansion. The Policy Matters Ohio report notes that many here, and across the state, are employed in some of the largest job sectors. They work in such places as restaurants, construction sites, nursing care facilities, child day care services and department stores. The Medicaid expansion, thus, strengthens households, from making good housing more affordable to reducing the family stress that makes learning more difficult for schoolchildren.

The governor made the calculation: Yes, a government program would expand, but in doing so, it would broaden opportunity and elevate lives, by means unique to the muscle and reach of the federal government. And now the expansion is delivering as promised, making it a very bad idea for Congress and the White House to step back.

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