On the evening of June 28, 2021, the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate concurred with the conference committee report on House Bill (HB) 110, the state’s biennial operating budget. The $75 billion, two-year spending plan was sent on to Governor Mike DeWine for his signature prior to July 1, 2021. In the early morning hours of July 1, Gov. DeWine signed the budget, issuing 14 line item vetoes.
- An across the board personal income tax cut of 3%
- Support for expanding broadband service
- Maintenance of Medicaid services
- Expanded Medicaid coverage for pregnant women for the maximum post-partum period under federal law (one year)
- Requires doctors working in abortion clinics to work within 25 miles of the clinic and bars them from teaching at public hospitals or medical schools
- Allows college student athletes to benefit from their own name, image, and likeness through endorsement
- Includes a medical practitioner conscience clause that gives authority to a medical practitioner, health care institution, or health care payer to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service that violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or principles held by the practitioner, institution, or payer
- Funds the family practice line item at $2,888,463 in SFY 2022 and $3,000,000 in SFY 2023
- Allows the ongoing Medicaid managed care contract procurement to proceed without delay.
Gov. DeWine issued 14 line item vetoes that included changes to future Medicaid managed care procurement processes, setting Medicaid rates in statute, and vacating COVID-19 violations and refunding fines to businesses. The Governor did not veto the Medical Practitioner Conscience Clause that was added by the Ohio Senate.