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Rep. Buchy
Continues to Stand in Opposition to Obamacare
Applauds Ohio’s plans for public assistance accountability
COLUMBUS – Last week, the Ohio Department of Medicaid announced a plan
to require individuals utilizing the state’s Medicaid program to make
payments in order to receive benefits. The plan is in response to the
Ohio House of Representatives passing legislation that will help Ohio’s
Medicaid system become balanced after political maneuvering led to
Medicaid expansion through federal funding from Obamacare.
Last year the Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 64, which
included language to enact the Healthy Ohio Program. Under this
program, Medicaid recipients will be required to make co-payments for
medical services under certain circumstances. Additionally, the program
states that individuals may be required to pay a monthly fee for their
healthcare that is the lesser of either $99 per month or 2 percent of
their income.
“Medicaid spending is growing like Topsy and steps must be taken to
slow the growth in this portion of the budget before it causes bigger
problems for Ohioans,” Buchy said. “With new individuals enrolling in
Medicaid now is an appropriate time to establish a commonsense cost
sharing program.”
For many Ohioans who are currently paying for their own health
insurance, they must factor in a co-payment every time they decide to
seek medical care. Under the expansion of Medicaid, co-payments were
not required leading many recipients to not exercise cautious restraint
before visiting a doctor. Buchy says this lack of caution is clogging
our medical system and leads to a bill that Ohio cannot afford.
“Employers often ask healthcare enrollees to cost share in the health
program so that they understand the true expense of providing this
benefit,” Buchy said. “From an economic stand point costs sharing will
reduce fraud and abuse within the Medicaid system and reduce some of
the current barriers to timely healthcare.”
According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Medical
Care, the introduction of just a $5 co-payment resulted in a decrease
of an estimated 10.9 percent in doctor’s visits by those enrolled in
state programs. Increasing the new co-payment structure in Ohio’s
Medicaid system is expected to reduce the impact of those who may
unnecessarily take advantage of Medicaid because it is free.
The program proposed by Ohio legislators, however, will incentivize
preventative care by awarding monetary amounts to a participant’s
account when they achieve healthcare goals or satisfy a healthcare
benchmark. By doing so, the state is encouraging program enrollees to
take proper measures to ensure they do not ignore their health for fear
of being charged a co-payment.
Recently, Indiana has adopted a similar policy to require Medicaid
enrollees to pay into a system for their benefits, while incentivizing
preventative care. As a result, the Healthy Indiana Plan saw a decrease
in enrollees utilizing emergency medical care, and more enrollees
seeking preventative care and filling their recommended prescriptions.
Ohio’s proposed plan is aimed at garnering the same results.
The enactment of Obamacare has left many states considering various
pieces of legislation in order to come up with a way to provide
healthcare for all residents without ignoring fiscal limitations.
The Healthy Ohio Plan is an effort to reduce dependency on state run
health care exchanges, which Buchy says are plagued by bureaucrats and
technological difficulties.
“Obamacare’s many failures have shown that it is bad policy and I
strongly support efforts in the legislature to block this overreach and
remain in support of free market solutions that allow for more
affordable health insurance options for hard working Ohioans,” Buchy
stated.
The Ohio Department of Medicaid’s plan that was announced last week now
enters a public comment period that will last from April 21 to May 3,
following which the proposal will be submitted to the federal
government for approval.
Buchy encourages constituents to visit tinyurl.com/buchyobamacaresurvey
to weigh in on this issue.
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