DeWine now would keep Medicaid expansion
Mike DeWine long had labeled Ohio’s expansion of Medicaid health coverage to 664,439 adults — largely the working poor — as financially unsustainable.
The Republican gubernatorial candidate talked of continuing treatment for the drug-addicted and mentally ill while seeking unspecified flexibility and waivers from federal authorities to revamp the program. The expansion, DeWine said, “will not exist as we know it.”
On Wednesday afternoon, DeWine flatly said he would retain the entire Medicaid expansion while seeking reforms, imposing work requirements for recipients and instituting wellness programs to reduce costs.
DeWine said his announcement, made while accepting the endorsement of the political action committee of the Ohio State Medical Association, was not a reversal of his prior position.
But in contrast with Wednesday’s statements, earlier in the campaign DeWine said in a written response to a Dispatch question, “Medicaid expansion is financially unsustainable for both the federal government and for Ohio.”
DeWine also had attacked his primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, for supporting the Medicaid expansion and repeatedly expressed his opposition to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, that fostered the Medicaid expansion.
His opponent, Democrat Richard Cordray, has pledged to retain the expansion as governor. DeWine running mate Secretary of State Jon Husted chastised Cordray on Tuesday for endorsing the “status quo” rather than seeking to improve the Medicaid system.
What Republican Gov. John Kasich saw as DeWine balking over the Medicaid expansion led the governor, in part, to withhold his immediate endorsement of the attorney general after DeWine’s primary win.
“We believe Medicaid needs to be reformed,” DeWine said at the Arena District endorsement announcement. “We’ll make it more accountable and sustainable in the long run.”
When asked how long he would retain the expansion as governor, DeWine only replied it was uncertain what changes to Medicaid may occur out of Washington, D.C.
In a statement, Cordray said, “Mike DeWine has spent the last 42 years of his career siding with the special interests, and the last seven years attacking Medicaid expansion. His words today are more empty political promises from someone who has failed to protect Ohioans with pre-existing medical conditions, who has repeatedly attacked the Affordable Care Act, and who has put big drug companies ahead of the middle class.”
In a tweet, Cordray added, “He promised to get rid of Medicaid expansion to win the primary and now is changing his position for nakedly political reasons. This is such an enormous flip-flop that it’s more likely a belly flop!”
Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Robyn Patterson added in a statement, “DeWine spent more than a million dollars attacking John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion, which provides access to quality, affordable health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of Ohioans ... Ohioans know better than to trust Mike DeWine when it comes to saving on health care and putting money back in the pocket of the middle class.”
Husted said the pair envision work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients consisting of at least 20 hours a week or enrollment in education or job-training programs. The state already has applied for a waiver to impose work and job-training requirements.
“We want to move people from dependency to independence and from poverty to prosperity,” DeWine said.
Husted also said the Republican ticket also will support the requirement that Affordable Care Act insurance policies retain coverage for pre-existing conditions. DeWine’s office, however said it would not join a lawsuit by other attorneys general fighting to save that coverage because it seeks to fully defend Obamacare.
Medicaid covers health care for 2.9 million Ohioans, with the state paying $8.3 billion and federal funds providing $18 billion. The expansion to adults at up to 138 percent of the poverty level ($22,411 a year for a two-person household) costs the state $248 million and the federal government $4.5 billion under a 5 percent to 95 percent split. About 633,000 Ohioans receive mental health and substance abuse treatment under the expansion.