Ohio Medicaid expansion uncertain under Trump presidency

More than 692,000 Ohioans could lose their tax-funded health insurance if President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans make good on promises to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act (Source: “Fate of Ohio’s Medicaid expansion tied to Obamacare’s future,” Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 28, 2016).

Ohio was one of 31 states to expand Medicaid under the ACA, allowing working-age adults without dependent children to qualify for coverage. Under current law, the federal government is paying the full cost of newly eligible beneficiaries through this year. The federal share of payments for that group will drop to 90 percent by 2020.

But for now, state officials can only speculate on what’s to come under a Trump presidency. Greg Moody, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, said the Kasich administration will maintain Medicaid expansion in the two-year budget plan it unveils early next year.

If expansion is abolished by repeal or, as some speculate, states are instead given a lump sum or block grant to fund their Medicaid programs, they probably would get less federal funding but perhaps greater flexibility in how they operate the program.