COLUMBUS – House Republican leaders are forging ahead with their health care overhaul despite strong objections from across the political spectrum, including Ohio’s Republican governor.
Two key committees plan to start votes on the legislation Wednesday.
But many fellow Republicans don’t seem to be listening.
On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the GOP health bill was launched, a powerful conservative backlash threatened to sink it.
And from the political center, Gov. John Kasich expressed deep misgivings about curbs on Medicaid, tweeting that phasing out Medicaid coverage without a viable alternative is “counterproductive” and potentially risky.
Gov. John Kasich on repeal and replacement of Obamacare: pic.twitter.com/zDE4l0Otv0
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) March 7, 2017
A frequent critic of GOP health care proposals, Kasich says he supports replacing the Affordable Care Act with “more conservative market-driven reforms” that work to control health-care costs, but the final fix must involve both Republicans and Democrats.
He says the proposed Medicaid phase-out “unnecessarily” risks the states’ ability to treat “the drug-addicted, mentally ill and working poor who now have access to a stable source of care.”
Kasich has been a leader among governors urging Congress to adopt an alternative that would change Medicaid from an open-ended federal entitlement to a program designed by each state within a financial limit.
Republican governors as a group are complaining that the GOP proposal would force millions of lower-income earners off insurance rolls or stick states with the cost of keeping them covered.
The governors were generally cool to the bill, some signalling that they would continue working on their own legislation to compete with the measure introduced Monday.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval says he and others had been seeking a governor-led reform effort. But when the bill came out, it did not include “anything that the governors have talked about.”
Republican governors lead 33 states. Their role in the health care debate could influence major policy changes this year and help determine the future of the party.