Amendment limits Medicaid plan

Republicans COLUMBUS — in the Ohio House are taking steps this week to install tighter financial oversight over expanded Medicaid, which is an element of Obamacare that serves 715,000 low-income Ohioans.

An amendment to the House budget bill would put “legislative guardrails” on the program and require funding approval every six months from the Controlling Board. “The money will be drawn down as we go,” said House Finance Committee Chairman Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell.

Medicaid is a state and federally funded health care program for disabled and low-income Americans. In Ohio, it costs $28 billion and covers more than 3 million people. Under the Affordable Care Act, it was expanded to cover more low-income people, with the feds picking up 95 percent of the tab.

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko warned in a written statement that the changes could gut Medicaid expansion, which would “endanger public health and undermine the fight against Ohio’s opioid crisis. That’s unconscionable.”

The Medicaid provisions were among six pages of changes introduced in a single omnibus amendment rolled out Monday afternoon. The House is scheduled to vote on the 4,500page spending bill on Tuesday. The bill details how the state will spend more than $133 billion over two years in state and federal money. But it’s not all about dollars and cents — the bill is loaded with policy changes dealing with topics such as prison farmland sales, opiate addiction, gambling and lottery games, and more.

Among the changes are the following:

Letting notaries set their own fees;

Extending the term of the state inspector general to January 2021;

Adding $100 million in funding for nursing homes over the two-year budget;

Allowing Ohio State University to enter a utility agreement for its energy systems on main campus;

Requiring the state prison system to competitive bidding when selling land;

Authorizing Warren County to earmark a 1-percent lodging tax for construction and maintenance of a new sports complex;

Striking the requirement that the Clark County Municipal Court clerk post be eliminated;

Cutting $1 million from Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks;

Allowing the University of Akron to sell off a dorm; and

Requiring consulting services be subject to competitive bidding and Controlling Board approval.

The House Finance Committee tabled several proposed changes offered by Democrats, including putting caps on tuition increases and pouring more money into children’s protective services to help kids impacted by the opiate addiction crisis.

Republicans, who control the Finance Committee, did agree to earmark more money for college campus safety and training.