Valley lawmakers applaud Ohio House moves

Staff/wire report

COLUMBUS

Republican Gov. John Kasich’s veto protecting Medicaid expansion will stand for now after a decision by state lawmakers to delay a threatened override.

Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a fellow Republican, said Thursday his chamber has decided to let the health care debate in Washington play out before acting.

He said the GOP-controlled chamber had the 60 votes that would have been needed.

He said the House still has until the end of Ohio’s two-year legislative session in December 2018 to act.

Some 700,000 low-income adults are now covered under Ohio’s expansion, at a cost of almost $5 billion – most of which is picked up by the federal government. The Kasich administration estimated that 500,000 Ohioans could lose coverage under the proposed enrollment freeze within the first 18 months. With House action stalled, the Ohio Senate canceled a session for considering overrides it had scheduled for next week.

The House did vote to override 11 other items, and restored a proposal to increase taxes on health insurers that would send money to counties and regional bus services.

The Trumbull County commissioners applauded that move which gives counties back revenue they had been threatened to lose through the loss of sales taxes on Medicaid Managed Care Organizations.

The loss of the MCO money was going to cost the county $2.7 million in 2018.

State Rep. Michael O’Brien of Warren, D-64th, said he expects the Ohio Senate to take similar action and for the federal government to authorize the move to give the sales-tax money back to counties.

Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he’s happy with the House vote and hopes the Senate will do the same.

Read more about the budget moves and the local reaction in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.