Controlling Board OKs Medicaid expansion, opponents file legal challenge

The state Controlling Board on Monday approved Gov. John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion plan (Source: “State Controlling Board OKs Medicaid expansion in Ohio,” Youngstown Vindicator, Oct. 22, 2013).

The 5-2 vote give state Medicaid officials the authority to spend $2.5 billion in federal funds to provide Medicaid coverage to all Ohioans earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level . The federal government earlier this month signed off on the Kasich administration’s request for the expanded eligibility for an estimated 366,000 Ohioans.

The day after the Controlling Board vote, two anti-abortion groups and six Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court to block the expansion (Source: “Ohio opponents of Medicaid expansion file lawsuit,” Associated Press via The Newark Advocate, Oct. 23, 2013).

The lawsuit argues that under state law, the Controlling Board is required to carry our the “legislative intent” of the General Assembly. The suit points to the two-year state budget that lawmakers passed in June that included language that prohibited Medicaid expansion. That language was removed by Gov. Kasich using his line-item veto powers.

“The Ohio Controlling Board’s expansion of Medicaid violates the clear limits on its own authority, and accordingly, also violates the clear limits of the Ohio Constitution,” the court filing states.

Expansion supporters contend the ultimate legislative intent is what actually becomes law.