Kasich musters allies to keep coverage

Ohio Gov. John Kasich has found a Democratic ally in his push to keep federal Medicaid dollars flowing while reining in costs at the state level.

The Ohio Republican reached out to Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to discuss a bipartisan effort to both preserve Medicaid and reform the individual market to ensure private coverage is available and affordable.

Hickenlooper told The Dispatch on Wednesday that he is working with Kasich “on putting together a small

bipartisan work group of governors” on ideas that the U.S. Senate could consider as they revamp the Obamacare replacement passed by the House last week.

“We both agree we must control costs, but we don’t want to roll back coverage,” Hickenlooper said. “We all recognize that as health-care costs continue to climb it takes resources away from transportation, education” and other state expenses.

Greg Moody, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation in Ohio, said, “We’ve had discussions (with U.S. senators) to preserve coverage and improve costs over time, everything that we talked about two months ago, and we’re in process of reactivating work of a few governors.”

In March, Kasich — with GOP Govs. Rick Snyder of Michigan, Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Asa Hutchinson

of Arkansas — outlined concerns in a letter to Republican congressional leaders, urging them to dump the House health-care bill because it did not preserve coverage and shifted added costs to states. But their efforts fell woefully short of influencing lawmakers.

Kasich, Moody said, will be working with those three governors and hopes to get others involved.

“It’s at the informal stage,” Moody said.

A key part of Kasich’s case is the harm that gutting the Medicaid expansion would bring to the battles in Ohio and other states against an opioid crisis that is claiming dozens of victims nationwide every day.

Medicaid expansion, which in Ohio has provided taxfunded insurance to more than 700,000 adults, has given thousands of people access to treatment for their drug addiction. The American Health Care Act approved last week would end extra federal aid for expansion in 2020, meaning states would have to pick up the added cost or scale back coverage.

Preserving Medicaid “is essential. It created resources currently available to fight the opioid crisis,” Moody said.

A recent analysis by the Department of Medicaid found more than 500,000 Ohioans who gained access through the Medicaid expansion received mental-health care or addiction treatment. It’s also a support for those in low-wage jobs without benefits, he said, noting that 43 percent of the new beneficiaries worked.

Meanwhile, CNN announced that Kasich and Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, will square off in a “town hall debate” at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Chris Cuomo will moderate the verbal clash between the pair of unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidates.

The moderate conservative and progressive liberal are not likely to agree on much except preserving Medicaid.