Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is considering accepting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in his state via executive order, his office confirmed to TPM, after the state legislature stymied his efforts earlier this year.
The possibility was first reported by the Columbus Dispatch. “We continue to explore all our options and just want to get this done,” Kasich spokesman Robert Nichols told TPM in an email Wednesday.
Here’s how it would work, according to the Dispatch: Kasich would expand Medicaid eligiblity to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, as Obamacare prescribes, via an executive order. He would then, on Oct. 21, ask a seven-member legislative-spending oversight panel for the authority to spend the money that the federal government would provide the state to pay for the expansion.
“The governor, I think, has the authority to do that,” Ohio Senate President Keith Faber (R) told the Dispatch Wednesday. “It’s certainly within his prerogative. I’m a defender of legislative rights, and I would think the better solution would be a legislative option, but the governor does have that authority.”
Medicaid expansion would cover roughly 275,000 additional Ohioans.
