ODJFS projection: Medicaid expansion to cost Ohio 1.45 billion over 5 years

Department of Job and Family Services projections released to the Columbus Dispatch earlier this month indicate that Medicaid expansion under national health reform will cost the state $1.45 billion over five years between 2014 and 2019 (Source: “Health law to boost Ohio Medicaid costs,” Associated Press via Toledo Free Press, June 22, 2010).

Ohio officials estimate that an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to everyone earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level will add 554,000 people to the state’s Medicaid rolls.

The state’s cost will be between $136 million and $333 million a year. However, ODJFS officials are expecting that the federal government will pick up $16.9 billion in new Medicaid costs over a six-year period beginning in 2013.