Day 1 of Ohio Medicaid Sign-Ups Tops Month 1 on Obamacare Exchange

Media Trackers ^ | December 10, 2013 | By Jason Hart

[Brad from Tennessee]

More Ohioans applied for Medicaid on December 9 than selected Obamacare “Health Insurance Marketplace” plans through the entire month of October, based on figures released yesterday by the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

“A total of 1,165 needy Ohioans had submitted applications for health benefits through the state’s new online Medicaid system as of midafternoon Monday, the first day the website (www.benefits.ohio.gov) began accepting enrollments.” Marc Kovac reported in The Youngstown Vindicator.

In November, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released data showing that during the disastrous first month of the Obamacare exchanges at HealthCare.gov, only 1,150 Ohioans selected plans on the national Health Insurance Marketplace.

The surge of Medicaid sign-ups in Ohio is a result of two policies: Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty, which is causing a “woodwork effect” of previously eligible Ohioans entering the program, and Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which makes hundreds of thousands of able-bodied childless adults eligible for Medicaid.

Governor John Kasich embraced the Obamacare Medicaid expansion and unilaterally enacted it after the Ohio General Assembly replaced Kasich’s proposal in the biennial budget with language explicitly forbidding the expansion.

Now, figures from HHS and the state Medicaid department confirm that Obamacare has been “successful” in Ohio only in terms of pushing more Americans into the broken, unsustainable Medicaid program.

Cato Institute health policy expert Michael Tanner described the situation as “a Medicaid time bomb” in a December 7 New York Post column.

“The Congressional Budget Office projects that, in part because of ObamaCare, Medicaid spending will more than double over the next 10 years, topping $554 billion by 2023,” Tanner wrote. “And that is just federal spending.”

“State governments pay another $160 billion for Medicaid today,” Tanner added. “For most states, Medicaid is the single-largest cost of government, crowding out education, transportation and everything else.”

[vette6387]

To any Ohio Freeper. Is John Kasich as bad a governor as it appears?

[Catsrus]

Bad? No. Disappointing - YES. He looks to win his second term, but I wish he would grow a pair - he went unilateral on that Medicaid expansion and I’m upset with him over that.

[SusaninOhio]

I agree, disappointing is a good description of Kasich so far.

He has had his good moments but in general I would lump him with the rest of the establishment GOP.

I begin to lose hope in the entire party.

[vette6387]

“He has had his good moments but in general I would lump him with the rest of the establishment GOP.”

I have watched his metamorphosis. He was a decent congressman, but then he went on TV as a “commentator,” and started his swing. He is a bitter disappointment as the Governor of Ohio. Kinda’ like Earl Warren was moving from Governor of California to the Chief Justice. Something snapped.