COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's Medicaid expansion will continue without a freeze on enrollment.
The Ohio House on Thursday rejected 11 of Gov. John Kasich's budget vetoes but did not take a vote to reinstate a proposed freeze on Medicaid expansion enrollment.
The House's inaction on the freeze was seen as a big win for Kasich, who has made the expansion a policy hallmark of his tenure.
But legislators knocked down nine other Medicaid-related vetoes, citing a need to assert legislative authority over the executive branch for several votes.
In a statement, Kasich said the overrides threaten health care access for vulnerable Ohioans and budget stability going forward. He urged the Senate, which canceled its session date next week, against following in the House's footsteps.
"When these actions begin to impact health care access for Ohioans, those who supported them will bear responsibility," Kasich said. "As the saying goes: if you break it, you own it."
Democrats joined Republicans and voted to keep language to raise taxes on health insurers for six years to help counties and regional transit authorities replace lost sales tax revenue. State officials would have to request permission for the tax hike from the federal government, which Kasich warned would put the state's current fee in jeopardy.
Thursday's veto overrides marked the first time one of the GOP-controlled chambers of the General Assembly rejected any of Kasich's vetoes during his six years in office.
Veto overrides must begin in the originating chamber, the House in the case of the budget bill, before moving to the other chamber. There was some question ahead of Thursday's session whether the chamber had the required 60 of 99 votes to keep the Medicaid freeze, which had drawn loud opposition from hospitals, health professionals and advocates for the poor.
House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger said Republicans had the votes, but they want to see what Congress does with Medicaid eligibility in the GOP-backed health care reform bill. The House could take up any of the vetoes at any time before the session ends in December 2018.
The budget bill would have frozen enrollment in Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for poor and disabled enrollment, for enrollees earning between 100 and 138 percent of the poverty level after July 1, 2018. More than 725,000 Ohioans have received health insurance through the eligibility expansion since 2014.
The House upheld provisions:
- Delaying the earliest long-term care patients on Medicaid,
- Setting Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes and neonatal care in statute.
- Requiring premiums for Medicaid enrollees through a proposed "Healthy Ohio" program, which the federal government rejected last year.
- Transferring authority from the governor to the legislature to appoint members to Ohio Oil and Gas Commission, which could fast-track drilling on public lands in Ohio.
"It should be our job," Rep. Tom Patton, a Strongsville Republican said of the long-term care provision. "We should maintain our authority for how well they are taken care of, not the bureaucrats of the administration."
The House took no action on vetoes related to education.
This story will be updated.