Columbus, OH – Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute and vice president of policy issued the following statement on the submission of the Medicaid work and community engagement waiver by the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

“Ohio’s waiver request is an important step in reforming the state’s health care system, and while we applaud this initial step, we are disappointed that the waiver is not part of a broader and bolder Medicaid reform package. The good news is, if approved, this waiver will ensure that needy and vulnerable citizens will continue to benefit from Medicaid while encouraging healthy, able-bodied adults to gain new skills and employment, and obtain private insurance coverage that offers better health care coverage. This waiver is a good start, but Ohio should continue to reform and improve its Medicaid program to help lift people up and out of the program while protecting the traditional and vulnerable Medicaid population.”

A nationally recognized expert in health care policy, Hederman submitted public comments on Ohio’s two Medicaid waiver proposals – the work and community engagement waiver and the state innovation or 1332 waiver. He was one of the first in the nation to propose using section 1332 waivers as a way to allow states to waive parts of the Affordable Care Act and take back the ability to regulate their insurance markets. Hederman and co-author Dennis G. Smith outlined this approach in their report Returning Health Care Power to the States.

In Federal Efforts to Stabilize ACA Individual Markets through State Innovation, Hederman and co-author Doug Badger argued that Congress and the federal government should empower states to devise new ways to make health insurance more affordable for more people.

# # #