Ohio’s U.S. Senators appear to be split on the latest attempt to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has been against it, but now we know more about how the state’s Republican Sen. feels.
In a conference call with reporters, Rob Portman seemed to be leaning toward supporting what’s been called the Cassidy-Graham bill, which would cap Medicaid, and reduce federal funding and distribute it to states as block grants to use as they see fit. “I think Ohio will do a good job – better than the federal government, probably because we know what the needs are, closer to what those needs are, like the opioid addiction," Portman said.
Ohio and the other 31 states that expanded Medicaid would see that funding phased out. Gov. John Kasich tweeted out that the bill “eliminates the guardrails that protect some of the most vulnerable among us.” And it also won’t include $45 billion in additional funding for the opioid crisis, which the GOP’s previous repeal-and-replace bill would have.
