The proposal from Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act would dramatically cut funding to Medicaid, and Medicaid expansion in particular. As Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports, that’s the looming issue as lawmakers try to move forward with the state budget.
A report by the Center for Community Solutions claims Ohio could lose as much as $2 billion a year in Medicaid expansion funding.
Gov. John Kasich, a vocal supporter of the expansion, says it wouldn’t be possible for the state to fill that gap. But Democratic House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn of Dayton disagrees with Kasich.
“It might be outside the realm of what he wants to do politically in terms of not cutting income tax or raising taxes in places or doing some other type of work around lowering costs, but I don’t believe that number is an impossible number.”
Medicaid in total takes up more than 47 percent of Kasich’s proposed state budget.
