No money, no problem for Ohio Obamacare expansion

[Geee]

Watchdog.org:

Ohio’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion will continue until at least July, despite burning through $2.56 billion in federal funding four months early.

 

Unless enrollment drops abruptly, Medicaid expansion will be more than $1 billion over budget by the end of Ohio’s current fiscal year June 30. The expansion’s 492,121 January enrollment was 34 percent higher than state projections for July.

 

Even with the federal government reimbursing Ohio for all of the program’s benefit costs, how can the Ohio Department of Medicaid continue the Obamacare expansion without legislative approval?

 

ODM does not need a new Obamacare expansion appropriation because the agency “has broad authority under Ohio law to operate the Medicaid program,” Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee director Susan Ackerman told Ohio Watchdog via email.

 

“Appropriations for the Medicaid budget are set at the line item level and not by category of service or population,” Ackerman said. “Department of Medicaid may pay for Medicaid services from any of their Medicaid service-related line items up to the appropriation set by the General Assembly.”

[Cyber_Liberty]

Dang! That Kasich is doing a bang-up job!