Ohio Medicaid expansion could mean fewer uninsured

DAYTON, Ohio - Ohio Medicaid expansion could mean fewer uninsured

A new national report says expanding Medicaid eligibility in Ohio under the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of uninsured residents by half.

It would also cost the state an additional $3.1 billion in the next decade.

The Dayton Daily News says the numbers come from a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Washington-based nonpartisan health care policy research organization.

The report says that if the state changes Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the poverty line or below, about 457,000 uninsured Ohioans would gain health care coverage by 2022. About 2.2 million Ohioans currently participate in the taxpayer-funded health insurance program.

State officials are still trying to figure out how it would pay its share of the increase.