Repeal could backfire on Ohioans in Congress
If it passes, Paul Ryan’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would be a disaster for Ohioans. According to Republican Gov. John Kasich, once chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee, what Ryan wants to do to Medicaid and Medicaid expansion “unnecessarily puts at risk (Ohio’s) ability to treat the drug-addicted, mentally ill and working poor who now have access to a stable source of care.”
Time was when such a statement would tell Ohio’s House delegation (12-4 Republican) everything it needed to know: A legislator supposedly looks out for the needs of his or her district, and Ohio’s governor says Ryan’s plan would hurt Ohioans.
Medicaid expansion is a key part of the Affordable Care Act. And Ryan’s bill, Kasich wrote in a Friday New York Times op-ed, “phases out the expanded Medicaid coverage that is in place in Ohio and 30 other states.”
The expansion of Medicaid benefits more than 700,000 Ohioans and, as noted last week, many live in GOP-held central- and southern Ohio congressional districts, such as Bill Johnson’s 6th District, Steve Stivers’ 15th and Brad Westrup’s 2nd (districts that include most of Ohio’s Appalachian counties) and Mike Turner’s Dayton-area 10th District.
Medicaid expansion also benefits Ohioans in the state’s eight other GOPheld districts. Take Urbana Republican Jim Jordan’s 4th District. It stretches 150 miles, southwest to northeast, from Ohio’s Corn Belt to part of Lorain County. Among Jordan constituents who gained health-care coverage thanks to Medicaid expansion are about 6,000 residents of Allen County (Lima) and about 2,700 residents each in Crawford (Bucyrus) and Sandusky counties.
In Bowling Green Republican Bob Latta’s 5th District, Medicaid expansion covers about 3,800 residents of Wood County and 3,200 residents of Hancock County. As for Bob Gibbs’ 7th District, Medicaid expansion provides coverage to about 3,000 Knox County residents, about 2,300 residents of Ashland County, and about 7,600 Richland County residents who are represented either by Gibbs or the 12th District’s Pat Tiberi. Elsewhere in Tiberi’s district, Medicaid expansion covers 8,400 residents of Licking County, 3,300 residents of Delaware County and 2,000 residents of Morrow County.
In the 8th District, represented by Troy Republican Warren Davidson, Medicaid expansion provides healthcare coverage to 20,000 residents of Butler County, 10,000 residents of Clark County and 4,000 residents of Miami County.
In Republican David Joyce’s Greater Cleveland 14th District, 8,700 residents of Lake County gained coverage thanks to Medicaid expansion, as did 6,700 residents of Ashtabula County, and residents of Geauga County and the parts of Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage and Trumbull counties also in Joyce’s district. Meanwhile, in Wadsworth Republican Jim Renacci’s 16th District, Medicaid expansion covers 5,200 Wayne County residents and many other Renacci constituents in parts of Cuyahoga, Medina, Stark, Summit and Portage counties.
The U.S. House’s four Ohio Democrats — Joyce Beatty (suburban Columbus); Marcia Fudge (Warrensville Heights); Marcy Kaptur (Toledo): and Tim Ryan (Trumbull County’s Howland Township) — oppose repeal of the Affordable Care Act. But House Republicans will be the deciders.
They should consider what Kasich, who sometimes seems to be the only Republican adult taking part in the ACA debate, wrote Friday: “It is unrealistic to think that cutting coverage saves any money, since we will only see uninsured people returning to the emergency room for their care — and walking away from unpaid bills.”
If the Ohio Republicans in Paul Ryan’s House caucus vote “yes” on his ACA repeal bill, their message to the 700,000 Ohioans who might eventually lose Medicaid coverage might as well be, “Don’t get sick,” – and to the Ohio hospitals that could go broke, “Suck it up.”