This morning, UHCAN Ohio joined with Enroll America, the Ohio Hospital Association, and the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers on a press conference call celebrating the 50th anniversary of Medicaid becoming law and discussing the progress made through Ohio’s expanded Medicaid program. 

 Earlier this week, we shared the importance of Medicaid to the health of Ohioans. The Ohio Medicaid Program is one of the great success stories in health care, providing nearly 3 million Ohioans the health care they need in a timely, efficient, and effective manner. Medicaid covers low-income parents, veterans, people struggling with mental illness and addiction, and others who need health care but can’t afford it. The expansion of Medicaid in Ohio has allowed low-income adults to access needed medical care, including preventative care to keep small issues from turning into serious, expensive illnesses. 

The Affordable Care Act offers states the opportunity to expand Medicaid to include more low-income individuals and families who would previously not have been eligible. UHCAN Ohio embraced the opportunity to expand Medicaid to all low income adults, and the broadest coalition of stakeholders ever seen in Ohio came together to support the Governor in enacting the expansion of Medicaid. Ohio’s expansion of Medicaid allows adults between the ages of 19 and 64 with incomes below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level to receive Medicaid benefits. Since the Medicaid expansion went into effect in January 2014, 596,000 new Ohioans enrolled in Medicaid, contributing to a total 2.9 million current Medicaid enrollees in Ohio. Click here for more information on how Medicaid is working in Ohio.

People can apply for Medicaid at any time – there is no open enrollment period for Medicaid. Ohioans can go to benefits.ohio.gov to check their eligibility or apply. Free in-person application assistance is also available: visit connector.getcoveredamerica.org or call 1-800-648-1176 to find help near you. See the table for Medicaid income limits by household size. 

UHCAN Ohio is proud to advocate for the Medicaid program, including its expansion that has allowed low-income Ohioans to get the care they need when they need it to be healthy and productive.  We’re happy to join our partners in celebrating the 50th anniversary of this effective, cost-efficient program that improves the health and well-being of Ohioans.

An interesting e-mail came into my box recently from Consumers Union.  CU looked at 50 state insurance department web sites and recorded what each state is doing to alert its residents to health insurance rate increase requests, and allow consumers to have an avenue for input. This follows the finalization of a rule on September 1, 2011 requiring states to post on their websites insurance companies’ requests for rate increases of greater than 10% and provide a way for consumers to submit comments on the rate requests. 

Of course, I immediately scrolled down to Ohio and here’s what it says:

No information about rates or rate review.

Only seven other states had the same notation:  Alaska, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.   

What is particularly disturbing about Ohio’s lack of progress is that in the fall of 2010 Ohio received $1 million to expand its rate review capacity, and $4 million was added in 2011.  Here is one of Ohio’s commitments from 2010:

Make More Information Publicly Available…The State intends to develop a consumer friendly web application, located on the department’s website to assist consumers in using and understanding the rate filing information. http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2010/08/rateschart.html

Meanwhile Ohio’s Insurance Commissioner Mary Taylor submitted comments earlier this week to the Federal Insurance Office  [FIO]on a number of issues being considered by  the FIO such as consumer protection, uniformity in regulatory standards among states and assessments of an insurer’s financial health.  Taylor stated: “… The [Ohio] Department has been nationally accredited for 20 years and is focused on a strong balance between protecting consumers without over-regulating the industry.”

It is time for Ohio’s Insurance Commissioner  to  implement the strong consumer protections that the Affordable Care Act created.  Take a look at Oregon’s web site, http://www.oregonhealthrates.org/#search_form.  Rate requests are displayed, even those that do not exceed  the federal threshold of 10%.  You can see the percent of increase that was actually granted.  You can read the comments of consumers.  Or go to Colorado’s web site: http://doraapps.state.co.us/Insurance/Consumer/pages/reviewProcess.aspx   Look at the easy to read timeline for comments and decision-making. 

It’s time for Ohio to move forward instead of backward, follow the law, and keep our commitments.  Or maybe it’s time to ask HHS to divert the money that is not being used to build a consumer friendly website and give it to an Ohio non-profit who would.  I can think of a number. 

By: Cathy Levine, Executive Director, UHCAN Ohio

Great news! As of January 1, 2014, more immigrants living in Ohio who are here with legal documentation will be eligible for Medicaid just like citizen residents. Note: this does not change the ineligibility of persons without legal documents for Medicaid except for emergency Medicaid

Ohio has been one of the most restrictive states, denying Medicaid to legal residents who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid – low income families, pregnant women, people with disabilities and seniors, simply because they are not citizens.  Federal law bars legal non-citizen residents for five years, but most states treat them like citizens after the five years. But not Ohio. The situation has put enormous stresses on families, and economic burdens on those health providers who treat people regardless of ability to pay, including hospitals and community health centers. Thus, this change is great news.

This change also applies to individuals who came to the U.S. as refugees or asylees and have used up their 7 years of Medicaid eligibility but have not yet become citizens.

In addition, pregnant women and children permanent residents are eligible without the five year waiting period as soon as they become permanent residents.  

The applicable rule is Ohio Administrative Code 5101:1-37-58.3 Medicaid: Non-Citizens.

Congratulations to Columbus Legal Aid attorney (and  UHCAN Ohio board member) Kate McGarvey and others for bringing the lawsuit which helped to bring about this change, as well as other health advocates who have pushed to eliminate this discriminatory barrier to Medicaid.

By: Cathy Levine, Executive Director, UHCAN Ohio

When I invited Rev. Timothy Ahrens, Senior Pastor at First Congregational Church in Columbus (UCC) to introduce me at a national health care conference recently, I wanted health care advocacy leaders to hear about our movement from the perspective of a faith leader. (Those of you who attended the large rally for Medicaid expansion at the Ohio Statehouse last April, may remember Rev. Ahrens as the pastor who shook the Statehouse with his passionate appeal.)

Rev. Ahrens probed me on what he should say to the national advocates. Although many health care advocates came to health reform through faith communities, I wanted Rev. Ahrens to deliver a message to a group of people whose commitment to health care justice is not necessarily tied to a religious faith or tradition about the role of religious communities in our work. I believe passionately in the role of religious communities in campaigns for social and economic justice for all people, while, at the same time, believing strongly that government should not impose religious expression on its people. I needed to sort this out for myself. Here goes.

In full disclosure, almost two decades ago, I became active in my synagogue, including its religious observance and study. For me, it happened as I explored why so many Jews were involved in civil rights and social justice activism. However, building relationships with faith communities should be a priority for all health care advocates, whether they are religious or secular.

Advocates for health care reform labor to promote sound analysis of why health care for all is good for our economy. But most of us involved in consumer health advocacy see the issue as a matter of plain fairness and decency – that no one should face financial ruin, live sicker and die younger for lack of access to affordable health care. The values underlying the world’s major religions – taking care of one another, “there for the grace of God go I,” – reflect what health care advocates feel in our guts, whether we identify ourselves as religious or not. That commitment to look out for one another informs our view of the role of government – as ensuring that all of its people have access to basic human needs and a fair opportunity for health, happiness and prosperity.

Because – at least in Ohio – it’s fair to assume that a majority of elected officials identify themselves as people of faith, it makes sense for us to promote messengers who are able to communicate a message about the role of government in caring for all of its people, in terms they can receive. That’s why faith leaders are such great communicators. Faith leaders provide a unique voice communicating the moral imperative to provide health care for all Ohioans and be heard by elected officials.

Faith communities are also critical to our coalitions’ need to mobilize grassroots Ohioans in communicating their support for our causes to elected officials. UHCAN Ohio and its coalition partners constantly seek more effective ways to build the grassroots voice. The most effective mobilization efforts come from organizations with large memberships – labor unions, AARP, American Cancer Society, etc.- that share our concern for health care. Faith communities, like unions and civic organizations, are organizations comprised of large numbers of people united around common values that may lead them to align with the policy priorities of health care advocates. In plain terms, all of the major religions in the US have long supported policies to ensure access to affordable health care for all Americans and are, thus, natural allies to health care advocates – with messages and messengers many decision-makers can relate to.

As with all relationships, health care coalitions need to approach faith communities with respect for those communities’ cultures. Once aligned on the policy issues, faith communities need space to figure out how they will bring the issues and calls to action to their members, as opposed to just using our messaging materials. Their messages and methods may differ from those of other coalition members. And, that’s okay.

Mobilizing Faith Communities of Color

Faith communities are anchors of African American, Latino and other racial and ethnically diverse communities, for some obvious reasons. The church is a haven against the institutional, cultural and inter-personal discrimination that people of color face daily in the larger world. The church provides spiritual support and renewal and provides intellectual stimulation (bible study is not for pikers). People of color often passed over for leadership in the larger society often develop skills and assume leadership roles in their faith communities.

As health care advocates pursue outreach and enrollment in the new Marketplace and other aspects of health care reform implementation, building lasting relationships of mutual respect with faith communities will yield rich rewards – sooner rather than later.