Redstate
Ohio Senate President Warns Gov. Kasich May Bankrupt State’s Medicaid Program
If Medicaid in Ohio goes bankrupt, it's because John Kasich bankrupted it
By Jason Hart

October 18th, 2013

Ohio Senate President Keith Faber (R-Celina) has voiced concern that Governor John Kasich may bankrupt the state’s Medicaid program if the Ohio Controlling Board rejects Kasich’s request to spend Obamacare funding.

“If we don’t move the [Obamacare] money from the federal funds account and authorize it to go over to the Medicaid account, Medicaid goes bankrupt,” Sen. Faber told reporters in an October 15 exchange filmed by Youngstown Vindicator reporter Marc Kovac.

Last month, the Kasich Administration submitted a Medicaid state plan amendment to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requesting to expand Ohio’s Medicaid program to cover the new population set by Obamacare. HHS approved the amendment on October 10.

Gov. Kasich has not issued an executive order to enact the Obamacare expansion, but Sen. Faber suggested on October 15 that Kasich would need to do so to expand eligibility.

Faber warned that if the Kasich Administration expands Medicaid and the Controlling Board refuses to appropriate Obamacare funds, ”current Medicaid recipients — you know, kids and moms and people that are currently covered under the Medicaid program — would not have services.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily a good result, and so I would imagine the Controlling Board on Monday will give the governor authority to move [Obamacare money] from that federal line to the state line.”

A week earlier, the staunchly pro-expansion Columbus Dispatch reported that Sen. Faber had made similar comments. Dispatch reporter Jim Siegel speculated, “could GOP legislative leaders who have thus far resisted expansion argue that they are being forced to go along – or else bankrupt a system that serves 2.4 million Ohioans?”

For the rest of this article, and the video interview with Ohio Senate President Faber, go to Redstate