© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Federal Government Strikes Down Proposed "Healthy Ohio" Medicaid Waiver

photo of healthy Ohio rejection letter
medicaid.ohio.gov

The federal government has rejected a plan proposed by state lawmakers to require about a million Ohio Medicaid recipients to pay premiums for their coverage. 

The “Healthy Ohio” program would have allowed the state to charge some Medicaid participants premiums of up to $99 annually and suspend coverage for non-pregnant recipients who don’t pay. 

Former state Medicaid director John Corlett now heads the Center for Community Solutions, which had offered input against the plan.

“One of the things that they pointed out that we had pointed out in our comments was the negative impact on low-income parents, on youth in foster care, and beneficiaries with breast and cervical cancer.”

Supporters said the plan would get recipients more fully involved in their own care by also rewarding them for healthy lifestyle choices and avoiding non-emergency hospital visits.

Corlett says he wants to work with lawmakers on lowering costs and increasing patient engagement.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.