Kasich Administration: Medicaid expansion to cost state $2.3 billion

New analysis released today by the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation estimates that Ohio will spend an additional $2.3 billion over the six-year period from 2014 to 2019 as a result of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (Source: “Medicaid expansion to cost $2.3B,” Columbus Dispatch, April 1, 2011).

According to the OHT estimates, which used data from the recently released 2010 Ohio Family Health Survey, Medicaid rolls are expected to swell by 936,000 in 2014. An analysis released by the state last year had estimated that Medicaid enrollment would increase by 554,000, and cost the state an additional $1.45 billion over the same 6-year period.

The report comes shortly after another analysis found that Ohio is ranked 10th among states facing the largest challenge with meeting primary care needs after Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. (Source: “Primary Care Access Challenges Loom with ACA Medicaid Expansions,”  AcademyHealth St@teside, March 31, 2011).

That study, which was published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, calculated the size of each state’s anticipated Medicaid expansion and compared it to the state’s primary care capacity. Ohio scored 128.2 on the study's Access-Challenge Index, with the average state score set at 100. Oklahoma is ranked as having the largest challenge, with an index of 212.6. Massachusetts ranked as having the least challenge, with an index of 15.2.