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Republican state lawmakers were successful in their efforts to freeze Medicaid expansion enrollment effective Sunday, July 1, 2018, in the recently passed state budget. Governor John Kasich opposed the freeze and in turn line-item vetoed the Medicaid expansion freeze provision on June 30. The Ohio House and Ohio Senate will likely attempt to override the governor’s veto, possibly as soon as Thursday, July 6. A veto would require a three-fifths majority in both houses of the Ohio General Assembly.
Since the governor expanded Medicaid in Ohio for the working poor in 2014 without the support of the legislature, Medicaid expansion has been an ongoing point of contention.
More than 700,000 Ohioans get their health care through Medicaid expansion but no new enrollees would be added after Sunday, July 1, 2018, under the vetoed language. If for some reason those covered by Medicaid expansion prior to Sunday, July 1, 2018, were dropped off Medicaid rolls (even as a result of losing a job), they could not be re-enrolled in Medicaid.
According to the Office of Health Transformation, when Arizona implemented a similar freeze in 2011, 70% of the people who were enrolled when the freeze took effect were not on the rolls 18 months later. If a similar result occurs in Ohio, more than 500,000 Ohioans could lose coverage.