So Far, Not So Great: Medicaid expansion already costing taxpayers

Ohio Gov. Kasich’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion 

has already cost taxpayers more than $3 billion

From Ohio Watchdog (h/t Kirsten Hill)

By Jason Hart | Ohio Watchdog

Americans’ tax burden is already $3 billion heavier because of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare.

By putting more able-bodied, working-age childless adults on Medicaid than Kasich projected, Obamacare expansion is reducing incentives to work and threatening traditional Medicaid recipients’ access to care faster and at greater cost than anticipated.

After Kasich expanded Medicaid unilaterally, a state panel approved $2.56 billion in Obamacare spending for the expansion’s first 18 months. The money was meant to last until July, but it ran out in February.

Kasich’s Obamacare expansion cost $323 million in March — 84 percent greater than estimates revised just six months earlier.

Kasich’s Obamacare expansion cost more than $3 billion from January 2014 through March 2015

Using monthly figures released by the Ohio Department of Medicaid, the Republican governor’s Obamacare expansion cost slightly more than $3 billion from January 2014 through March 2015.

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Click here to contact your state Senator.

The Wall Street Journal blasts Gov. Kasich

The Wall Street Journal blasts Gov. Kasich’s end-run around the legislature to expand Medicaid in Ohio

Believe it or not, there are still a few disciples with faith in an ObamaCare higher power, and one of them happens to run Ohio. Governor John Kasich is so fervent a believer that he is even abusing his executive power to join the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Not to be sacrilegious, but the Republican used to know better. Now Mr. Kasich seems to view signing up for this part of ObamaCare as an act of Christian charity and has literally all but claimed that God told him to do so.

The problem is that his evangelizing failed to convert the Ohio legislature, which is run by Republicans who understand the brutal budget and regulatory realities of participating in new Medicaid. So Mr. Kasich simply decided to cut out Ohio's elected representatives and expand Medicaid by himself.

This week he appealed to an obscure seven-member state panel called the Controlling Board, which oversees certain state capital expenditures and can receive or make grants. Because the feds are paying for 100% of new enrollees for the next three years, Mr. Kasich asked the panel to approve $2.56 billion in federal funding, and then he'll lift eligibility levels via executive fiat.

It's a gambit worthy of President Obama, who also asserts unilateral powers to suspend laws that displease him and bypass Congress. The Controlling Board, which Mr. Kasich and his allies in the GOP leadership stacked with pro-expansion appointees, approved the request 5-2 on Monday.

Mr. Kasich's action is all the more flagrant considering the state legislature did not merely refuse to appropriate or authorize spending the federal money. The GOP majority passed a budget with specific language prohibiting the Governor from expanding Medicaid without its consent. Mr. Kasich used a line-item veto to remove that provision, but he's still violating the spirit of the law.

. . .

Thirty-nine House Republicans signed a formal protest and some of them are threatening to sue, and well they should. They argue that circumventing the legislature subverts the Ohio constitution's separation of powers and exceeds the statutory legal authorities of the Controlling Board, which is supposed to "take no action which does not carry out the legislative intent of the General Assembly."

Ohio is now the 25th state to buckle under pressure from Washington and the hospital lobby to join new Medicaid. His behavior doesn't speak well for Mr. Kasich's governing judgment as he prepares to run for a higher office in 2016. . . . [emphasis added]

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Ohio Controlling Board approves $2.5 billion Medicaid expansion

From The Plain Dealer report: 

Medicaid expansion OK

marks a long-awaited victory for supporters, grounds for a fight among critics

[Oct 21, 2013] COLUMBUS, Ohio — Depending on who you talk to, Monday’s vote by the Ohio Controlling Board to approve $2.5 billion for Medicaid expansion was either a landmark victory for thousands in need of health care or an unconstitutional and unaffordable ballooning of big government. 

Either way, the fight over whether Ohio should accept billions of federal dollars to extend health care to low-income residents is likely to continue, either in court or at the polls. 

The 5-2 Controlling Board vote marked a culmination of a months-long push, led by Gov. John Kasich, to have the state accept the first chunk of an estimated $13 billion offered to it for Medicaid expansion under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. 

When GOP lawmakers resisted taking the funding, Kasich instead turned to the little-known board to appropriate the money – at least, until legislators draw up a new state budget in two years. By accepting the money, 275,000 additional Ohioans will be eligible for Medicaid benefits starting Jan. 1, 2014, according to administration estimates. Currently 2.35 million people -- or about one out of every five Ohioans – are enrolled in Medicaid. 

Crucial support for expansion came from the business community, including traditionally GOP-friendly groups such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. 

Hospitals also aggressively pushed for the measure, worried that, among other things, that without Medicaid expansion, they would be left on the hook as federal aid for uninsured patients is decreased. 

. . .However, critics said following the vote that passing expansion was hardly a mutual decision. At least one opponent is preparing to fight the expansion in court, while others vowed to make the issue a political liability for Kasich. 

Maurice Thompson, executive director of the conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, said his group hopes to quickly file a legal challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court, perhaps within 24 hours of the Controlling Board vote. 

The suit will contend that the Controlling Board overstepped its authority by not adhering to the intent of the legislature, as required by Ohio law, Thompson said. He said he hadn’t yet nailed down who his plaintiffs would be in the case. 

Ralph King, state co-coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots for Ohio, said tea party voters will also remember Monday’s vote when next year’s gubernatorial election comes around. 

Kasich, he said, is “rolling the dice” that he’ll win over enough Democrats and independents to both re-elect him in 2014. 

“It’s going to be huge. They thought people stayed at home for Mitt Romney…” King said, in reference to the failed 2012 GOP presidential nominee’s lackluster support among his party base. 

In addition, he said, tea party groups around the country would fight "kicking and screaming" to destroy any dream Kasich might have about one day winning the presidency. 

“If we have any say-so, maybe -- if there’s no shutdown at the time -- he’ll be lucky if he could be a tourist down at the White House,” King said. 

Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican who's opposed expansion, said the Controlling Board vote wasn't about favoring or opposing the federal health-care law. 

"Existing law gives the director of Medicaid the ability to set Medicaid eligibility levels without legislative involvement," the speaker said in a statement. "This has already been done by Governor Kasich's administration, and today's meeting of the Controlling Board is to ensure the solvency of the state's Medicaid program."

Read the rest here.  Tea Party Patriots' phone calls to Columbus were ignored by Gov. Kasich and his cronies. Thanks to all who dialed and dialed. 

Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right

PRESS RELEASE

October 17, 2013

For Immediate Release 
Contact: Bob Connors, Local coordinator - We the People Ohio Valley

(740) 579-1173

Clowns to the Left, 

Jokers to the Right

The Taxpaying Citizen Stuck in the Middle 

Ohio - October 17, 2013 - While the clowns in DC continue their three-ring circus of elitist crony capitalism, shutting down national monuments, and threatening phantom debt defaults, we have our own dog and pony show to deal with right here in Ohio.

Although the majority of Americans want the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) delayed, if not defunded, Governor Kasich continues his obsession with expanding Medicaid, through the use of Obamacare appropriated funds.  

Governor Kasich is attempting to usurp his legislature, and thereby the citizens of Ohio, by requesting that the Ohio Controlling Board appropriate Obamacare funds to expand Medicaid with billions in federal funding.  The Controlling Board has never, in its entire history, come close to spending such a huge amount of money. 

"What's really disgusting is the manner it which the Governor is pursuing this obsession to expand Medicaid," stated Jenny Beth Martin, Co-Founder of Tea Party Patriots. "Governor Kasich campaigned as a fiscal conservative and was therefore supported by fiscal conservatives. We urge Governor Kasich to listen to the people who elected him and respect the legislative process".  

According to the October 15th Gongwer Report, "sources say Speaker Bill Batchelder (R-Medina) plans to alter his chamber's membership on the panel prior to next Monday's meeting and will seat at least one member that will give the go-ahead to the governor's plan."  It appears the Governor has found the vote he needs in Senator Widener (R-Springfield), making a board shuffle unnecessary.

"It's nearly impossible for a group of people to ever agree 100% on any legislative action, but we do believe that the process should be pure and unmanipulated, "Stated Bob Connors, Local coordinator of We the People Ohio Valley.  " By playing musical chairs with the members of the Controlling Board, Governor Kasich is pulling the same trick that was used when trying to jam SB 5 down everyone's throat."

In using the Controlling Board to expand Medicaid, Governor Kasich is displaying a complete disrespect for the separation of powers and the legislative process.  The people of Ohio elected their Representatives, not the Controlling Board.

The Tea Party Patriots' mission is to restore America's founding principles of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free Markets.

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