Ohio Medicaid rolls increase amid pandemic

With increased joblessness accompanying the coronavirus pandemic, more Ohioans are turning to Medicaid for health coverage (Source: “Ohio Medicaid rolls now increasing, a reverse from the downward trend,” Cleveland.com, May 12, 2020).

About 3 million people are now on Medicaid, Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran said Tuesday.

“We had an increase in the number of people by about 140,000 from the end of March until the end of April,” she said.

In July 2017, there were nearly 3.1 million people receiving health care through the joint state and federal program, which targets Ohioans with lower incomes and those with disabilities. Month-by-month since then, the number went down, hitting a low of just over 2.7 million in November 2019.

At the time of the decrease, state officials and social welfare experts had attributed the decrease to an improved economy providing more jobs, a decrease in advertising from the White House under President Donald Trump and problems with Ohio’s benefits system.