State Rep. Boyce's Statement on GOP's Refusal to Include Medicaid Expansion in Budget

COLUMBUS- State Representative Kevin L. Boyce released the following statement after the Ohio House refused to include Medicaid expansion as part of the state’s two-year budget. Medicaid expansion would have provided healthcare coverage to more than 275,000 Ohioans and created thousands of jobs in the healthcare field.

 “It is hard to determine the winners upon the passage of this budget. I can certainly identify the losers, our local governments, school districts and low income Ohioans.

 “It is disheartening to relay to my constituency that our policy makers could not set aside partisan politics to hear the voices of the people and place their needs at the top of our priority list.

 “Instead, by removing the Medicaid expansion portion from the budget, we now lose out on $13 billion in federal funds, and $400 million in cost savings. The line in the sand has been drawn and Ohioans will not stand for this politics over people.”