Says change needed but must not cut off people

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio Gov. John Kasich is reiterating his plea that Medicaid expansion be maintained as President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers take on a health care overhaul.

The Republican Kasich, speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday, says Medicaid serves many people in Ohio suffering from drug addiction, mental illness and chronic diseases.

Kasich says it’s important that Democrats join Republicans to change the law known as Obamacare without cutting off people that need the health insurance protection it provides.

Kasich, a frequent critic of GOP health care proposals, says he supports replacing the Affordable Care Act with “more conservative market-driven reforms” that work to control health-care costs, but the final fix must involve both Republicans and Democrats.

He says the proposed Medicaid phase-out “unnecessarily” risks the states’ ability to treat “the drug-addicted, mentally ill and working poor who now have access to a stable source of care.”

Kasich has been a leader among governors urging Congress to adopt an alternative that would change Medicaid from an open-ended federal entitlement to a program designed by each state within a financial limit.

Kasich says it’s crucial to have members of each political party involved after Democrats passed the health care law without Republican votes.

Kasich says no plan is sustainable without bipartisan support.

House Republican legislation overhauling the nation’s health care law would limit future federal funding for Medicaid, which covers low-income people, about 1 in 5 Americans. And it would loosen rules that former President Barack Obama’s law imposed for health plans directly purchased by individuals, while also scaling back insurance subsidies.

Republicans say their solutions would make Medicaid more cost-efficient without punishing the poor and disabled, while spurring private insurers to offer attractive products for the estimated 20 million consumers in the market for individual policies.

But Democrats say the bill would make many people uninsured, shifting costs to states and hospital systems that act as providers of last resort. Individual policy holders might be able to find low-premium plans, only to be exposed to higher deductibles and copayments.

House committees planned to begin voting on the legislation Wednesday.