Gov. Strickland includes health reform measures in budget

The work of the State Coverage Initiative and the Ohio Health Quality Improvement Summit did not go unnoticed in the budget proposal presented this week by Gov. Ted Strickland. In spite of what he has called the tightest state budget in 46 years, Strickland has set aside $26 million for health coverage and quality programs, according to a summary (pdf) released by the Department of Insurance.

If approved by the General Assembly, the Governor’s health reform plans, based on SCI recommendations, would enable 110,000 previously uninsured Ohioans to acquire coverage, according to administration estimates. Nearly half of the reduction to the uninsured population would come as a result of a plan to cap the cost of open enrollment, which would allow an estimated 52,000 more Ohioans to get coverage.

The budget sets aside $20 million for expanding the use of electronic health records and also would create the Ohio Health Care Coverage and Quality Council, which would oversee funding for, and implementation of, the Ohio Health Quality Improvement Plan, a series of strategies first developed during the Ohio Health Quality Imporvement Summit in November.

Strickland’s proposed reforms of the open enrollment market include capping rates at one-and-a-half times the base rates, a move that is anticipated to decrease open enrollment rates by 50 to 70 percent. To subsidize that reduction, individual market rates are expected to increase overall by 5.5 percent (Source: “Trimming Ohio’s uninsured hinges on open enrollment cuts, some higher overall rates,” MedCity News, Feb. 5, 2009).

Other proposed reforms include expanding dependent child coverage to age 29 and requiring employers to allow uninsured employees to purchase coverage through Section 125 cafeteria plans, which would mean more than 21,000 and 37,000 Ohioans, respectively, would get health coverage, according to administration estimates.