Opinion: Ohio Medicaid expansion not a wise investment

In an opinion piece in the Hillsboro Times-Gazette, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions analyst Marc Kilmer questions whether Ohio should expand Medicaid at a time of severe budget deficits (Source: “Is Medicaid expansion necessary?” Hillsboro Times-Gazette, Jan. 16, 2009).

Although the state’s recent move to allow children in families making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level eligible for Medicaid benefits would likely provide coverage for 50,000 children, Kilmer said studies have shown that between 25 percent and 60 percent of the new enrollees would not have previouly been uninsured, but would simply shift from private insurance to public insurance.

“Some may say that any amount spent providing health care to these children is a good thing. But in a time of extremely limited tax revenue, should the children of relatively well-off Ohioans be using resources that may be better spent elsewhere?” he wrote. “For  instance, wouldn't it make more sense that if we are going to have government health insurance for children that we try and limit it to those families who cannot afford health insurance on their own?”