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Toledo
Blade
Ohio
takes
tough health law stance
Lt. Gov.
Taylor rejects insurance exchange
By Tyrel
Linkhorn
BOWLING
GREEN -- Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor used her strongest words yet in saying
Ohio won’t
set up its own state-run health insurance exchange, instead deferring
to the
federal government to establish the key programs required under the
Affordable
Care Act.
“At this
point, we are not going to set up a state-based exchange,” Ms. Taylor
told a
group of about 200 Tuesday during a luncheon meeting of the Bowling
Green
Chamber of Commerce.
Previously,
officials of the administration of Gov. John Kasich had said they were
“leaning” toward not establishing the exchange, which is designed to
give
consumers a better-organized market from which to purchase health care.
Ms. Taylor,
a Republican, said it would cost the state between $30 million and $40
million
per year to operate such an exchange, plus initial start-up costs.
Despite that
cost, Ms. Taylor said, state officials are given little flexibility to
make
decisions.
She said
creating a state exchange would do nothing to mitigate health-insurance
cost
increases that Kasich administration officials predict will come with
the
Supreme Court’s affirmation of President Obama’s health-care overhaul,
and that
doing so would go against the Kasich administration’s core values.
“Quite
frankly, we looked at the guiding principles that we’ve been using
since we
took office and our core values around health-care transformation or
health-care reform, and a state exchange is just not consistent with
those core
values,” she said in an interview after her speech. “And of course we
have the
issue of last November’s vote and what Ohioans spoke pretty loudly and
clearly
about.”
Ms. Taylor
was referring to an amendment to the state’s constitution passed last
year that
prohibits Ohio residents from being required to participate in a
health-care
system. Although it passed by a significant margin, ultimately it was
mostly
symbolic: The state can’t use it to prevent implementation of the
federal
health-care reform law.
She did
leave open the possibility the administration could reverse course, but
said
right now she and Governor Kasich believe the decision is the best one
for
Ohio.
“Based on
all of the information we have available for us today, the reports
we’ve done,
the information that is scant out of Washington about how we are
required to
comply, we have made a decision that we do not think it is in the best
interest
of Ohio citizens to do a state-based exchange at this point,” she said.
Should the
state receive further clarification or additional information that
would
convince the administration Ohio would be better off with its own
exchange, Ms.
Taylor believes there is still time for the state to set one up.
Brian
Rothenberg, executive director of Progress Ohio, a group that has given
hefty
support to the health overhaul, accused Ms. Taylor of playing politics.
“Once again
it’s a politician’s answer to a problem that isn’t political. Everybody
has
health issues. It seems to me like now that the Supreme Court has
ruled, we
need to find a way to make this work and not try to score political
points for
November,” he said.
The
exchange must be in place by Jan. 1, 2014. The state has until Nov. 16
to tell
the federal government whether it will implement its own plan or leave
it to
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to do it for Ohio
instead.
“It’s kind
of ironic coming from a conservative that spends much of her time
railing about
Washington that in this case she’s now claiming she’d rather Washington
run the
program,” Mr. Rothenberg said.
Ms. Taylor
also gave the chamber a brief update on the Common Sense Initiative,
which aims
to streamline regulation within Ohio, partially by eliminating
duplicate
regulating agencies. She said it’s not about deregulation, but making
regulations and rules make more sense.
“We’re
working across every single agency -- the Department of Taxation, the
Ohio EPA,
the Department of Commerce -- to make sure that every agency has the
right
attitude about how we’re going to handle and treat business here in
Ohio. We’re
not restricted to one issue and we’re not restricted to one agency or
one
process,” she said. “We cut across all of state government.”
Read this and
other articles at the Toledo Blade
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