Ohio Medicaid Expansion Failures

Matthew Glans

Few states demonstrate the failure of Medicaid expansion better than Ohio. Gov. John Kasich’s (R) expansion of Medicaid is already beginning to hemorrhage expenses the state’s budget may not be able to withstand. In 2013, Kasich expanded Medicaid under the auspices of the Affordable Care Act, bypassing the wishes of the Ohio General Assembly, who struck expansion from the state budget and even passed a ban on Medicaid expansion. Opponents of Medicaid expansion note the program is stretching states’ already thin budgets and has a poor track record at providing cost-effective and efficient care for those in need.

When Kasich first pushed through expansion, he estimated the cost between 2014 and 2020 to be around $14 billion. According to the latest Ohio Department of Medicaid data, these predictions were nowhere close to reality. Watchdog.org reported in April Kasich’s Medicaid expansion costs an average of $391 million per month, or over $1.5 billion per quarter. If these trends continue, Ohio’s Medicaid expansion will cost $14.1 billion by August 2017 and $27.5 billion by June 2020. The total federal cost for Ohio’s expansion as of April 2014 amounts to around $7.1 billion.......To Read More...