One of the fundamental building blocks of Health Care Reform under the Affordable Care Act was that states would be provided Federal funds to expand Medicaid to cover more people and to provide better benefits. But in NFIB v. Sebelius, the U.S. Supreme Court granted states greater flexibility to opt out of the Medicaid expansion.
The Ohio legislature has repeatedly expressed its opposition to Medicaid expansion. It even passed legislation prohibiting the expansion, but that was vetoed by Governor Kasich. Earlier this week, an administrative committee known as the Controlling Board approved Medicaid expansion over the objections of the Ohio legislature.
So now the litigation begins. Yesterday members of the Ohio legislature, joined by other interest groups, filed a complaint directly with the Ohio Supreme Court challenging the authority of the Controlling Board in approving Medicaid expansion. The complaint can be found here.
