Federal government rejects ill-conceived ‘Healthy Ohio’ plan

Proposal would have undermined successful Medicaid expansion in Ohio.

For immediate release

Contact: Wendy Patton: 614.221.4505

The federal government today helped preserve health care for hundreds of thousands of struggling Ohioans by denying the state’s request to impose premiums and other costs for Medicaid enrollees. The Ohio legislature had voted for the so-called “Healthy Ohio” proposal, even though its provisions would cause many enrollees to lose Medicaid coverage. Medicaid, the largest insurer serving people in the state, provides health care to those who can’t afford health insurance. A quarter of Ohioans have access to health care through Medicaid coverage. “We are very relieved this immediate threat to the health care of Ohioans is not moving forward,” said Wendy Patton of Policy Matters Ohio. “Many Ohioans were deeply troubled by this proposal. The federal government listened to our concerns and found them justified.” Under the plan, the state would have imposed premiums and other costs for Medicaid enrollees. It would ban those who couldn’t pay from coverage until they paid their arrearages. “Healthy Ohio” was so problematic that 99 percent of the 956 comments submitted during last spring’s hearings on the plan raised concerns.  Despite the many problems, the Kasich administration submitted the proposal to the federal government for approval. Today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) denied the state’s request for approval. The denial letter said, in part: “We are concerned about the state’s request to charge premiums, regardless of income, to the 600,000 individuals in Ohio’s new adult group, as well as hundreds of thousands of low income parents, foster care youth, and beneficiaries with breast and cervical cancer. CMS is concerned that these premiums would undermine access to coverage and the affordability of care, and do not support the objectives of the Medicaid program.” It went on to point out: “In addition, Ohio’s application would exclude individuals from coverage indefinitely until they pay all arrears, a policy that we have not authorized in any state. We do not believe that this practice would support the objectives of the Medicaid program, because it could lead to a substantial population without access to affordable coverage.”