GOP Rep. proposes Ohio Medicaid eligibility reduction

Ohio Rep. John Becker, a Union Township Republican, announced this week soon-to-be-introduced legislation that seeks to reduce Ohio’s Medicaid rolls by setting eligibility for adults at the federal minimum levels (Source: “Republican legislator proposes new cuts to Medicaid,” Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 23, 2013).

Becker’s plan, which he says would save taxpayers about $1.5 billion a year, calls for eligibility for parents to drop from 90 percent of the federal poverty level to 34 percent; eligibility for pregnant women to be reduced from 200 percent of poverty to 133 percent; and the Medicaid buy-in program would be abolished for workers with disabilities, which is currently 250 percent of poverty.