Ohio senator expects Medicaid expansion to move forward next week

By Marc Kovac

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

The Republican head of the Ohio Senate expects Gov. John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion plan to move forward during next week’s Controlling Board meeting.

At the session, members will decide whether to grant authority to spend federal funds headed to the state for health care services to more needy residents.

“I would be surprised if the governor would go forward if he didn’t have an idea of what the votes were,” Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, told reporters Tuesday.

Faber also said the governor has the authority to proceed with the expansion, via executive order. Absent the Controlling Board action, federal funds will end up in the wrong budget account and can’t be spent for their intended purpose.

Faber’s comments came a few days after the Kasich administration announced the Controlling Board option after failing to gain enough votes in the full Ohio House and Senate to increase Medicaid eligibility to residents living at 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Proponents say the move will provide health care to upward of 275,000 residents, with the federal government covering all of the initial costs and most of the later ones.

But opponents view it as an endorsement of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and out-of-control federal spending.

The federal government already has signed off on expanded Medicaid in Ohio; Controlling Board approval is needed to enable state officials to spend the extra federal money for Medicaid purposes.

That board includes seven members — four Republican lawmakers and two Democrats, plus Kasich’s appointed president.

The makeup likely means at least one Republican member will have to vote in favor of the Medicaid appropriation, since Democrats support the move. None of the four sitting GOP members have committed support publicly.