Ryan Weighs in on Healthy Ohio Medicaid Fee Plan
On Sunday, Sept. 25, The Center for Health Affairs’ President and CEO Bill Ryan was quoted in a Crain’s Cleveland article discussing the rejection of the state’s Medicaid fee proposal known as Healthy Ohio. This plan would have required eligible Medicaid beneficiaries to make monthly contributions into a health savings account equal to 2 percent of their income, or $8.25 per month, whichever is less.
In the piece, “Round 2 awaits state in Medicaid fee fight,” Ryan indicated he anticipated the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to deny the request. “I think everybody who understands how these waivers work was pretty clear right from the beginning that it was unlikely that this would be approved,” Ryan said.
Even though the initial battle is over, Ryan warned that different tactics to limit the Medicaid program may be attempted by Ohio’s General Assembly in the future. “The Legislature hasn’t gotten any less conservative in Ohio and still very much dislikes the Medicaid program in general,” he said.
To read the full Crain’s Cleveland piece on the Healthy Ohio Medicaid fee proposal, click here.
