About three million Ohioans are on Medicaid or other supports for low-income residents. A Republican lawmaker who’s proposed several high-profile bills said latest one will help many of those recipients to slowly move off that system to private insurance.
Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.) said people on Medicaid often turn down a promotion or pay raise because that would make them ineligible for benefits.
“The system is broken," he said.
"This type of public subsidy was always guided to be a safety net, a very short-term program to help people when they fall to the lowest they've been at in their lives,” Williams said. “But unfortunately, these programs have turned into quicksand that can hold our residents in perpetual poverty because of the income guidelines and the benefit cliffs associated with these programs that drives individuals to make choices not to take a pay raise."
Williams said he was familiar with the issue after he was recovering from an injury and was receiving disability benefits.
“I would be cut off from my disability if I had the audacity to try to dig myself out of poverty,” Williams said.
Williams said his bill, which hasn’t been formally introduced, would allow people to accept a raise, move ahead or get educational opportunities. And as those efforts are rewarded, they would take specific actions.
"As participants begin earning more money, they're required to maintain employment and contribute a portion of their income into a state-managed ‘American Dream’ savings account. These accounts are designed to help participants build real financial stability,” Williams said, adding that then “participants transition to private insurance coverage, with the state providing temporary premium and cost-sharing assistance to ensure continuity of care during the transition."
Williams said he knows the problem often goes beyond Medicaid, because many recipients are also in subsidized child care and subsidized housing programs that can be affected by increases in income. He said there are other bills that would need to pass to deal with those problems.
But Williams said changes must be made because low-income Ohioans need the help and businesses need the employees.
The idea of allowing Medicaid recipients to accept job opportunities and wean themselves off the system over time is something of a popular political talking point. It’s worth noting that Williams is one of six candidates in the Republican nomination for the 9th Congressional district in the May primary. The winner of that race will go on to face U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH 9), the longest-serving woman in Congressional history. Last fall the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved a map that included a redraw of that district to lean more Republican.
