Here are 5 key takeaways from our reporting:
1. State changes: About 61,000 Ohioans could lose their health insurance coverage in 2026 if the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid approves Ohio’s proposal for work requirements, according to estimates from the Ohio Department of Medicaid.
2. Medicaid expansion: The larger question is whether federal lawmakers and the Trump administration will curtail Medicaid expansion, which covers 770,000 Ohioans. The president and congressional leaders have said Medicaid will be protected, but experts say ambitious federal spending reduction goals are nearly impossible to meet without impacting Medicaid.
- The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has to find a way to cut the deficit by at least $880 billion over the next decade, but, excluding Medicare, Medicaid accounts for 93% of the funds that committee manages, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
3. State budget: Even a modest reduction in federal Medicaid spending could trigger the end of Medicaid expansion in Ohio under a proposal in the draft state budget that would terminate Medicaid expansion in Ohio if federal funding falls under 90% for that program. That measure was in the state budget draft passed by the Ohio House Wednesday.
4. Area residents: “My life was saved by the citizens of Ohio, and my life was saved by an appropriately compassionate structure of governance,” said Karen Jeffers-Tracy, of Fairborn, who went on Medicaid after she had a heart attack.
5. Work requirement: “If we want people to have to earn Medicaid by working, that’s only going to work for healthy people,” said Bailey Miller, of Middletown, who had to quit working and go on Medicaid on the long journey to diagnose and treat a rare disease.
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