BREAKING NEWS : State Controlling Board will take up Medicaid expansion in Ohio

COLUMBUS - The state Controlling Board will take up an expansion of Medicaid eligibility at its meeting later this month, bypassing a vote of the entire Ohio House and Senate on the matter and leaving it in the hands of six lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich's appointed panel president.

The official notice of the move is included on the Oct. 21 agenda, released today in advance of the Columbus Day holiday.

It came a day after the federal government OK'd the state's request to expand Medicaid to cover residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Federal officials have said they would cover 100 percent of the costs of the expansion during the initial years, with support dropping to 90 percent by 2020.

"We think as of June 2015, we would have a net increase enrollment of 275,000 Ohioans," said Greg Moody, director of the Governor's Office of Health Transformation.

Kasich sought the Medicaid expansion in his biennial budget proposal earlier this year, but GOP lawmakers blocked the attempt, with some viewing it as an endorsement of President Barack Obama's signature health care law and out-of-control federal spending.

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