Ohio Health Policy Review

2010 Ohio Family Health Survey interviews set to begin

The 2010 Ohio Family Health Survey, managed by the Ohio Colleges of Medicine’s Government Resource Center and the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, is expected to begin collecting interviews in the middle of July, with interviews to be concluded in August.

The stratified random digital dial survey of approximately 5,200 Ohio households (using both land-line and cellular phones) is a follow-up to the 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey, which was one of the largest and most comprehensive state-level health and insurance surveys conducted in the nation.

The emphasis for the 2010 survey is gauging the level of economic stress on Ohio families and how that is impacting Ohio's health system and indicators of health, according to Tim Sahr, HPIO Director of Research and co-principal investigator on the OFHS. The OFHS team also is planning another major survey of 50,000-plus households in 2012 that will track results from the 2008 survey and will include county-level information.

Initial data results from the 2010 OFHS are expected later this year.

Ohio Budget Commission begins looking into state deficit

In its second meeting, the State Management and Planning Commission heard from Strickland Administration officials that the state’s economy is in “recovery mode,” an assertion that was met with skepticism by the Republican legislators sitting on the six-member bi-partisan panel organized to look for solutions to a state budget deficit that is projected to be as large as $8 billion by 2012-13 (Source: “Official: Ohio in 'recovery mode',” Columbus Dispatch, July 8, 2010).

State Budget Director J. Pari Sabety told the panel during her presentation, titled “Ohio's Budget: Steady Fiscal Control in Turbulent Times," (pdf, 18 pages) that the state’s employment picture is stabilizing and the 2010 budget ended with a $139 million balance.

Before Sabety spoke, the commission heard from an official with the National Conference of State Legislatures, who said that other states are facing even worse budget deficits than Ohio. Compared to other states, some of which have projected budget gaps as large as 45 percent of their current budgets, Ohio is expected to have a gap of about 16 percent of its 50.5 billion budget, according to Todd Haggerty of the NCSL. However, a presentation from the Council of State Governments concluded that the state's overall economic and competitiveness performance is "sub-par."

The commission is scheduled to meet again July 20. Between now and mid-August, Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, co-chairman of the committee, said that the panel is soliciting any group or individual to submit reports and recommendations that could be used to deal with the next budget.

Ohio obesity rate continues to climb, report finds

An annual state ranking for obesity has found that Ohio improved from the 10th most obese state in the nation to 13th this year, in spite of an increase in the state’s obesity rate to 29 percent from 28.6 percent last year (Source: “Report: Ohio obesity rate hits 29%,” Business Courier of Cincinnati, July 1, 2010).
The report, titled “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future, 2010,” (pdf, 124 pages) was published jointly by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report found that 38 states now have an adult obesity rate of 25 percent or greater. Two decades ago not a single state had a rate above 20 percent.
The report also highlighted what it called “troubling” racial and ethnic disparities in obesity rates. Adult obesity was more prevalent among blacks and Latinos than whites in at least 40 states, including Ohio. Adult obesity for blacks in Ohio hit nearly 41 percent in the latest report, one of the 10 highest rates in the nation.

Mansfield public health program a model for federal reform provision

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown visited Mansfield this week to highlight the work of the Community Health Access Project, a county health worker program that serves as a model for a provision in the federal health reform legislation that passed in March  (Source: “Local program a model for nation,” (Mansfield) News Journal, July 7, 2010).

Started in Mansfield in 1999, CHAP was expanded to rural Knox County in 2000 and involves facilitating visits by county health workers to populations that experiences high rates of low-birthweight babies. The program estimates that in its first three years of operation, the number of low-birthweight babies in the region declinded 22.7 percent.

Sen. Brown pushed for inclusion of a grant program in the federal legislation that will fund programs modeled after CHAP.

Ohio Supreme Court hears arguments in Tabacco fund case

Two years after Gov. Ted Strickland and the General Assembly made plans to reallocate most of the money in the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, the state’s highest courts heard arguments on whether elected officials had the power to do so (Source: “State's tobacco 'raid' debated before Ohio Supreme Court,” Columbus Dispatch, July 7, 2010).

The foundation’s attorney argues that because the fund, which was established in 2000 using part of Ohio’s $10.6 billion share of a settlement between cigarette companies and states, was created with the goal of combating tobacco use, politicians could not use the funds for other purposes.

Lawmakers have earmarked $230 million of the foundation’s $260 million toward expanding Medicaid coverage for low-income children and the state’s attorney argues that the money can be used for any purpose that elected officials chose.

A ruling in the case is expected in several months.

1,000 Ohio HIV/AIDS patients lose drug benefits

About 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients who had been eligible for free medication from the state are set to lose their benefits (Source: “More than 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients across Ohio to lose benefits,” Cleveland Plain-Dealer, July 5, 2010).

Ohio’s Ryan White program has seen the number HIV/AIDS patients earning less than 500 percent of the Federal Poverty level receiving free medication increase from 1,962 in 2005 to 4,384 last year. Meanwhile, state and federal funding for the program has remained steady during that time.

Officials with the program say the combination of increased demand from services, which they attribute to increased unemployment, combined with rising drug costs made the cutback necessary.

HPIO releases fact sheet on impact of national reform on Ohio's uninsured

As Ohio policymakers continue to implement national health reform, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio is planning to publish a series of Health Reform Fact Sheets. Over the next six months, HPIO will be releasing the short papers designed to describe the Ohio-specific impact of national reform on coverage, provider capacity, delivery system reform, information transparency, and State resources. The latest of these, finished this week, addresses Ohio’s uninsured and how they will be impacted by reform.

HPIO also has released its National Health Reform Framework — a one-page summary of implementation priorities that can be used by HPIO and others as a starting point for more detailed discussions about the challenges and opportunities related to reform.

In addition, HPIO also has created a presentation,"What Reform Means for Ohio," that describes national reform, implementation challenges, and opportunities for Ohio to improve health system performance (this presentation is ideal for strategic planning — please contact Jill Huntley at 614-224-4950 or jhuntley@healthpolicyohio.org if you are interested in scheduling Greg Moody, HPIO Interim Director, to present at your organization and/or facilitate a discussion on the impact of reform).

Ohio picks Medical Mutual to run high-risk pool

The Ohio Department of Insurance last week announced that it has chosen Medical Mutual of Ohio to operate the state’s temporary high-risk insurance pool (Source: “Medical Mutual to run state's high-risk pool,” Columbus Dispatch, June 26, 2010).

Federal reform legislation passed in March requires a high-risk pool in every state so that those with pre-existing medical conditional can purchase insurance. The pool will operate until 2014, when a state-managed insurance exchange will be established.

In its proposal, Medical Mutual, a nonprofit company, estimated that it could cover more than 5,000 Ohioans through the duration of the program, with individuals paying a standard premium for their coverage. No state funds will be used to provide this coverage.

At the same time, a new nationwide program designed to help people turned down for health coverage because of preexisting health conditions launched Thursday, which will be used by residents of the 21 states that opted against setting up a state-run high-risk pool (Source: "Obama administration unveils government health-care Web site," Washington Post, July 1, 2010)

The Obama administration unveiled on Thursday a new website, www.healthcare.gov,  where people who’ve been turned down for health coverage can go to find new options until the health-reform law’s major provisions take effect in 2014.

Ohio dependent age increase goes into effect

On Thursday unmarried Ohio adults up to age 28 were able to remain or be added to their parent’s insurance coverage (Source: “Dependent age now increased to 28 for insurance purposes,” Youngstown Vindicator, July 1, 2010).

The change, which was approved by the General Assembly last year, will work in tandem with a federal reform provision that childen up to age 26 be eligible for coverage. That provision goes into effect on Sept. 23.

The increased dependent age is expected to enable 20,000 additional young adults to obtain coverage, according to state officials.

 

ODJFS projection: Medicaid expansion to cost Ohio 1.45 billion over 5 years

Department of Job and Family Services projections released to the Columbus Dispatch earlier this month indicate that Medicaid expansion under national health reform will cost the state $1.45 billion over five years between 2014 and 2019 (Source: “Health law to boost Ohio Medicaid costs,” Associated Press via Toledo Free Press, June 22, 2010).

Ohio officials estimate that an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to everyone earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level will add 554,000 people to the state’s Medicaid rolls.

The state’s cost will be between $136 million and $333 million a year. However, ODJFS officials are expecting that the federal government will pick up $16.9 billion in new Medicaid costs over a six-year period beginning in 2013.