For the first time, the Republican candidate for governor is stating clearly that he would keep Medicaid expansion for all 700,000 Ohioans covered under it. Mike DeWine says he’s been supportive all along, but his opponent says that’s not true.
While accepting the endorsement of the Ohio State Medical Association, DeWine said he’d keep Medicaid expansion but that he’d reform it, including adding work requirements and wellness incentive programs. “Look, there’s no change. What we have said is, all along, is that it had to be reformed,” DeWine said.
But Democratic candidate Richard Cordray said DeWine has always opposed the Affordable Care Act, which allowed for Medicaid expansion, and that during the GOP primary, DeWine said Medicaid expansion would not exist if he were elected. “Mike DeWine has done an absolute flip-flop right in the middle of this campaign on a key issue of health care accessibility,” Cordray said.
Gov. John Kasich has said he hoped both candidates would consider keeping Medicaid expansion, which he pushed through over Republican lawmakers’ opposition in 2013.
