Porker of the Week: Department of Job & Family Services
COLUMBUS - Eye on the Statehouse has named the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) its Porker of the Week. The state agency is seeking to expand Ohio's overburdened Medicaid program.
Last week, ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelly asked the Ohio Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee to allow families earning 300 percent of the poverty level to buy into the state's Medicaid program.
The Ohio House rejected the proposal during its budget deliberations earlier this month.
Senators also expressed apprehension towards the proposal. Senator Gary Cates (R-West Chester) told Director Jones-Kelly that families with incomes more than 300 percent of the poverty level earn more than some state legislators. “A family with that kind of income should be able to provide health insurance,” he said.
Buckeye Institute Analyst Marc Kilmer explained why the proposal makes bad economic and health care sense in a column entitled, “Strickland Heads Wrong Way on Medicaid.”
Eye on the Statehouse is a Buckeye Institute project. It approaches the biennial budget and its legislative hearings from a free market perspective and offers a critical view of state government’s spending priorities. In particular, it seeks out wasteful and ineffective government spending.
The full text of the Porker of the Week is available at eyeonthestatehouse.org.
For more information, contact Carlo LoParo at (614) 224-4422.
