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2018 was a big election year in Ohio. Republicans held onto all five statewide executive offices including governor and super majorities in both the Ohio House and Senate. But there were a few bright spots for Democrats, among them the reelection of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and the election of two Democrats to the Ohio Supreme Court.With election 2018 over, the focus now shifts to governing. Stay connected with the latest on politics, policies and people making the decisions at all levels affecting your lives.

Former HHS Secretary Targets DeWine Over Pre-Existing Conditions

photo of Kathleen Sebelius
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talks about the ACA alongside Dr. Greg Lam, Circleville cardiologist and member of the Physicians Action Network, and Susan Hyde, a cancer survivor and the mother of a woman diagnosed with leukemia as a child.

The head of the federal agency that put the Affordable Care Act into effect in 2010 spent the day in her home state of Ohio. It’s part of an effort by Democrats to target Republicans such as gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine, who filed suit against the law which requires health insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

There’s no question what side former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is on: “NFIB v. Sebelius, the lawsuit that Mike DeWine joined – I am the Sebelius. So this is personal.”

Sebelius is a former Kansas governor and the daughter of Ohio’s late governor John Gilligan. And she said even though coverage for pre-existing conditions is covered by federal law, governors have a role. “In a number of states, the state has stepped up and said, in the event that the Affordable Care Act is struck down, we will make sure that no policy is ever sold which does not afford people protections against pre-existing conditions,” Sebelius said.

DeWine says he was opposed to the ACA’s individual mandate, but that he’s voted several times for pre-existing conditions protections.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.