By Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch, staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS – The future of Ohio’s Medicaid expansion is in limbo as lawmakers weigh a veto override and expansion supporters work to stop them.
UPDATE: The House did not hold a veto override vote on Thursday but may take it up at a later date. A vote can be attempted any time up until the end of the legislative session on December 31, 2018
Republican Gov. John Kasich vetoed a budget provision Friday that calls for freezing new expansion enrollment starting July 1, 2018, and preventing those who drop off the program from re-enrolling.
Hundreds of people rallied at the Statehouse Wednesday to defend the expansion. Protesters included health care professionals, community activists, faith leaders and consumer advocates.
“We need this continuous care,” says Michelle Shirer, AARP Ohio communications coordinator. “We need this expanded care for the poor, for the elderly, for the most vulnerable, for people who have become poor because of their illness.”
The Kasich administration estimated 500,000 low-income adults would lose coverage within the first 18 months of the freeze.
But the Republican-led Legislature supports reining in Medicaid spending as it threatens to consume Ohio’s budget.
House Republicans were to meet Wednesday to determine if they have the votes to proceed. Veto overrides need the approval of three-fifths of each chamber. If the GOP can marshal the 60 votes (out of 99 members) to overturn the veto, the Senate likely will take its shot July 12, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch.
Those at the rally argued that freezing Medicaid expansion enrollment would mean Ohio is turning its back on low-income adults who need health care.
“We came here for a fight today,” the Rev. Tim Ahrens, senior minister of First Congregational Church in Columbus, told the crowd. He suggested that it’s un-American not to support low-income Ohioans who rely on Medicaid for health coverage, the newspaper reported.
“The people of Ohio are not being heard and not being accounted for,” he added. “We can’t leave behind 500,000 sisters and brothers across the state.”
The last time a governor’s veto was overridden in Ohio was in 2006, when fellow Republicans undid Governor Bob Taft’s easing of gun restrictions on his way out of office.