Four years after going out on a limb to get Medicaid expansion enacted, Ohio’s outgoing governor is worried about the future of the program. So he’s now defending it – through a study, and through people who are in the program, such as Brenda Jean Searcy, a 55-year-old law student who lives with her 93-year-old father in the Columbus suburb of Westerville. Director Barbara Sears says there was good news in the study for people with specific conditions, and she and budget director Tim Keen say they feel Medicaid expansion is manageable and affordable. But Republican lawmakers have long had concerns about the program’s cost. And so does the Republican candidate to replace Kasich, Attorney General Mike DeWine. Gov. John Kasich says he’s talked to DeWine’s team about supporting the program.
The survey brings good news to Ohio Medicaid at a time when the agency was getting unwelcome attention regarding its two pharmacy benefits managers. Last week Auditor Dave Yost called on Medicaid to halt that plan till next March. But that’s not what Patrick Stephan with Medicaid says the agency wants to do. Among the lawmakers who've had concerns about PBMs are Sen. Bill Coley (R-Liberty Township) and Rep. Thomas West (D-Canton).
This weekend President Trump will be in Ohio for the second time this month. He’ll headline the Ohio Republican Party’s biggest yearly fundraising event, its annual state dinner. While it’s expected that most if not all of the Republican ticket on this fall’s ballot will be at this event, Gov. John Kasich says he won’t be there.
This dinner is a big deal for most Republican officeholders, would-be candidates and supporters. But could President Trump be a draw for Republicans or a drag? Selena Zito is the nationally known columnist who was among the first to say in 2016 that Trump would win the election, and also famously wrote that Trump supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his opponents take him literally but not seriously. She was in Ohio recently to talk about her new book and how she came up with those insights.