GreatMixed news from Republican controlled Ohio: they're not attempting to sabotage Obamacare by screwing its residents and rejecting federal funds to expand medicaid. But they are using the new federal funds to....you guessed it: cut income taxes.
Ending months of debate, a legislative oversight panel approved spending $2.56 billion in federal money today to expand Medicaid coverage to about 275,000 low-income Ohioans.Read the rest to learn the interesting legislative maneuvers Gov. John Kasich went through to make it happen.Almost immediately after the bipartisan 5-2 vote, Senate Republicans said they planned to use the expansion to offer a $400 million income tax cut, about 4 percent, with money largely coming from Ohio hospitals that would see additional federal funds from the expansion.
Starting Jan. 1, mostly childless adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, about $16,000 for a one-person household, can begin receiving health care coverage under the state-federal program.
The childless adults who would gain health coverage include many long-time unemployed, mentally ill, veterans and prison inmates.