COLUMBUS – State officials say most Ohioans covered under Medicaid expansion will remain insured without changes under new work requirements submitted to the federal government for approval but opponents of the request say it creates hurdles for those who rely on Medicaid for health care and puts their coverage at risk.
A Medicaid waiver submitted Monday details Ohio’s plan for imposing a work and community engagement requirement lawmakers passed last summer: It requires Medicaid expansion enrollees to work unless they’re over age 55, a student, seeking substance abuse treatment or have serious physical or mental health issues.
“The Ohio Department of Medicaid has this backwards. Medicaid provides health care coverage to millions of Ohioans; having health care coverage makes people healthier; and healthier people are more likely to get jobs and work,” said Dr. Gregory Lam, a Circleville cardiologist with the Physicians Action Network.
Greg Moody leads Republican Gov. John Kasich’s Office of Health Transformation. He said only about 36,000 Ohioans — or 5 percent of expansion enrollees — will need to find work to keep insurance under the proposal. Most of the 700,000 Ohioans covered under the expansion already are employed.
The proposal calls for enrollees to work or participate in community service activities for at least 20 hours a week but the Ohio Department of Medicaid estimates that 18,000 people won’t be able to comply and will lose eligibility, says Steve Wagner, who heads the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio.
He argues that the waiver submission is vague and has scarce details on how it will help create job opportunities.
“It’s not going to provide the types of jobs for people that are currently on Medicaid that would allow them to have health insurance, to have an income that really brings them out of poverty. So, there’s not that kind of job creation – so what’s then the point of this?” he said.
Ohio joins a list of nine states now awaiting decisions from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which already approved similar proposals in Arkansas, Indiana and Kentucky. The waiver approval process could take two to three years.