Columbus, OH – The Buckeye Institute’s Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy, submitted public comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Ohio’s work requirement waiver application. These comments follow ones Hederman submitted to the Ohio Department of Medicaid on March 16, 2018.

“Ohio’s community engagement waiver application is a good start at reforming the state’s Medicaid program. It meets the federal government’s test of budget neutrality and follows the guidelines on how to utilize waivers to fix our health insurance market,” said Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute and vice president of policy. “The federal government has approved bolder waivers than Ohio’s, which shows that the state needs to continue to modernize its Medicaid program to protect recipients and ensure the program’s future sustainability.”

As he did in his comments on Ohio’s waiver application, Hederman pointed out that Medicaid was drastically changed under the Affordable Care Act, saying, “Encouraging healthy, able-bodied adults to remain in the workforce or engage in other educational and training activities, Ohio’s proposed Section 1115 waiver will enhance lifetime earnings, income, and health. By enhancing the health of the covered Medicaid enrollees, Ohio’s proposed waiver meets the twin goals of the waiver demonstration project by promoting economic stability and improving health.”

Hederman is a nationally recognized expert in health care policy. He was one of the first to propose using section 1332 waivers as a way to allow states to waive parts of the law and take back the ability to regulate their insurance markets. Hederman, and co-author Dennis G. Smith, outlined this approach in the report Returning Health Care Power to the States. More recently, in Federal Efforts to Stabilize ACA Individual Markets through State Innovation, a study for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Hederman and Doug Badger with the Galen Institute argue that Congress and the administration should empower states to devise new ways to make health insurance more affordable for more people.

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