Medicaid Funding & the Ohio General Assembly

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a story by its Columbus Bureau Chief discussing the funding of Ohio's Medicaid program. According to this story a family of four earning $60,000.00 per year would see approximately $1,300.00 of its tax dollars go to this program.

One of the issues that always comes up during debate over Medicaid is how to handle senior citizens and their care. The article points out that in the past the nursing home lobby has managed to get what it wanted from the Ohio General Assembly. That is changing.

One of the changes that is being discussed is to try and shift more people from nursing homes to in-home care which would theoretically save money. Such a policy change, however, assumes that there will be skilled nursing aides to help families cope with caring for sick and disabled senior citizens.

In one of her last acts as State Auditor Betty Montgomery released a report calling for over 100 changes in Ohio's Medicaid program that she said would save over 400 million dollars per year. That report could become the blueprint for changing Ohio's Medicaid program. It will be interesting to see how much the House and Senate GOP leadership are willing to take on the nursing home lobby.