As the General Assembly prepared to wrap up work on the state budget and head home for the summer break, the issue of Medicaid expansion still looms and there is a chorus of expansion advocates arguing something must be done now to allow implementation on January 1.

In the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation (OHT)’s spokesman comments,

"We need six months. It’s a combination of our own administrative work, work with the feds, just giving people time to enroll," said Eric Poklar, spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation. "If they wait 55 days to pass a bill, we will not have this up and running Jan. 1. Period."

The Buckeye Institute has consistently argued expansion is a terrible deal for Ohio (check out this Cincinnati Enquirer op-ed from our President, Robert Alt that quickly outlines six reasons why this is the case). However, even if the General Assembly did vote to expand the program, the enhanced federal dollars available DO NOT dry up on January 2 or February 2 or even June 2 of next year. Assuming the Federal government stays true to its word (something advocates typically assume), the enhanced rate will be fully available for three years and will begin to ratchet down in 2017.

In the same article, State Representative Denise Driehaus comments,

“Can we talk about what we’re doing now, before the clock runs out? When Jan. 1 comes around, federal dollars are available for Medicaid expansion, but if we have not figured out what we’re doing in Ohio, to me that’s a risk.”

But there is no clock to run out. There is a risk that Ohio could miss out on a few extra months of extra Federal deficit financed dollars, but the long-term cost of doing so should policymakers from succumbing to an artificially imposed rush to judgment.

Advocates want the enhanced Federal dollars the minute they become available and not a minute later. Unfortunately, the push risks policymakers making a rash decision based upon a deadline that has far more to do with politics than good public policy.

For those that are concerned about losing money, State Senator Dave Burke (R- Marysville), the point person on reform efforts in the Ohio Senate, sums it well:

"You think the deadline is expensive? Pass bad policy," he said. "That’s costly."

Ohio has to get this policy right. Ramming it through because of flawed deadline would be a titanic mistake.