Politics

John Kasich Throws Support Behind Obamacare

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Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich threw unprecedented support behind Obamacare in an interview with The Associated Press released Monday.

Kasich spoke to The AP about GOP efforts to repeal the health-care law if Republicans win the Senate in the November elections.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Kasich said.

Even if repeal is a political impossibility — most GOP leaders recognize that they won’t be able to repeal the health-care law while President Barack Obama remains in office — Kasich went even further in his growing support of Obamacare.

“The opposition to it was really either political or ideological,” Kasich told The AP. “I don’t think that holds water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives.”

It’s unclear whether Kasich was referring to Obamacare as a whole or the law’s Medicaid expansion in particular — but either way the Republican governor’s positivity about the health-care law is unprecedented.

Kasich attracted a lot of ire from conservatives for his efforts to get Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion passed in Ohio after the state legislature voted against expansion.

The governor issued a line-veto on the legislature’s Medicaid expansion ban in the state budget; took administrative action to expand the program; and used the state Controlling Board to push the measure through, making Ohio one of the few GOP states to accept the Obamacare boost to the program.

Typically, Republicans have opposed the Medicaid expansion for a long list of reasons. The expansion limits states’ ability to charge small premiums to some customers or require proof of employment. It also provides some of the lowest-quality coverage in the country. (RELATED: Less Than Half Of Doctors In Nation’s Largest Cities Accept Medicaid) 

But Kasich seems to be standing by his decision on the basis of practicality. Kasich isn’t just throwing out the GOP’s “political” opposition to the health-care law here, but the typical conservative ideological opposition as well — that the government’s intervention here isn’t the best way to get more people better health care.

Kasich’s move made Ohio one of 27 states and Washington, D.C. to accept the Medicaid expansion. Nationwide, the program has 8.7 million more enrollees (along with the similar Children’s Health Insurance Plan) than it did one year ago, bringing the total up to almost 68 million Medicaid sign-ups as of August 2014.

In those 27 states, Obamacare expands eligibility for Medicaid to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. As the Affordable Care Act is written, that comes with federal money — but conservative governors have noticed that Obamacare’s rules and regulations still haven’t been set in stone and some are wary that the expansion could bust their budgets anyway.

In part, Kasich’s comments aren’t entirely surprising. Conservatives have been arguing for years that once the government starts paying out Obamacare ‘benefits’ — taxpayer-funded subsidies for private premiums and expanded Medicaid eligibility — it will be all but impossible to end the programs.

But the GOP leader’s seeming acceptance that Medicaid, the welfare-insurance program for low-income Americans, is making “real improvements in people’s lives” is a stark departure from the typical conservative view of the health-care law.

Update: Kasich tweeted his opposition to The AP’s version of his quotes on Monday night, reaffirming his opposition to Obamacare and his support for repealing the health-care law and replacing it with conservative health-care reform.

Ohio refused to establish a state-run health care exchange. Its Obamacare exchange is federally-run out of HealthCare.gov.

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