Gov. Kasich vetoes cuts to Medicaid expansion

July 01--COLUMBUS -- Gov. John Kasich wielded his line-item veto pen shortly before midnight Friday to strike an attempted legislative blow to Ohio's Medicaid expansion program that he has defended on state and federal fronts.

The provision would have forced the Republican governor to ask the federal government for permission to freeze enrollment in the program a year from now, protecting those already enrolled but forbidding, with some exceptions, anyone else from entering or re-entering.

Anticipating the move, the House has already postponed its summer recess by scheduling session for Thursday for possible veto overrides.

Midnight marked the end of the current fiscal year. The governor could remove language he didn't like from the $65 billion, two-year general fund budget, but he couldn't add anything. His office officially received House Bill 49 just hours before the fiscal year's end.

The governor received numerous calls urging him to veto multiple Medicaid restrictions.

"Individually, each provision impedes access to health care for Ohioans," said Dr. Anita Somani, a member of the Physicians Action Network. "Together, these provisions will remove access for hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who currently rely on it to take care of basic health-care needs, chronic physical and mental health diagnoses, as well as drug and alcohol addictions."

Fellow Republicans in the General Assembly balked in 2013 at the idea of partnering with then President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act in 2013 to expand the federal-state health insurance of last resort for the poor, disabled, and infirm.

So Mr. Kasich instead turned to the quasi-legislative Ohio Controlling Board to draw down billions in federal dollars to make it happen. Despite their opposition, majority Republicans did not block the program in the two-year budget that expired at midnight and enrollment now stands at about 725,000.

But they did throw obstacles in the program's path in the next two-year plan.

The governor has argued that the expansion has allowed Ohio to expand treatment for the mentally ill and respond to the opiate and heroin addiction epidemic. The federal government currently picks up 95 percent of the expansion's cost.

Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

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