Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland, Keith Faber says the bill would likely be a departure from the Medicaid expansion endorsed by Gov. John Kasich.

The Ohio House has rejected Kasich’s proposal to go along with the federal Medicaid expansion plan, which would cover hundreds of thousands of additional Ohioans.

Faber says senators know there’s a need for coverage among people with disabilities, mental health problems and addiction. And, he says, lawmakers are still open to what he calls Medicaid “reform.”

But he declined give definitive details.

“Will it mean the expansion that the governor proposed, or will it mean something else. My guess is that it will mean something else.

He says lawmakers are looking into getting a waiver from the federal government to depart from the Medicaid expansion as laid out by the Affordable Care Act.

Robin Bachman at Sisters of Charity Health System heard Faber’s remarks, and says she’s glad there’s still a chance the state will offer Medicaid coverage to more people.

He didn’t seem to shut the door on that, so it was hopeful in my mind. I would love to hear that it was going to happen sooner rather than later.

Bachman says she’s still hopeful Ohio will approve a full expansion.

Faber says he’d like to pass a bill by the end of the year.

Critics of the amendment called it meaningless because federal law trumps state laws. Then came the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, upholding the federal law. That was a setback for the Tea Party and other conservative foes of the law. But now, some Republican state legislators say they have found a new way Ohio could successfully fight the new federal mandate. Click the play button to hear details, as well as reaction from supporters of the Affordable Care Act.

Reverend Tim Ehrens of the First Congregational Church in Columbus usually backs Democratic causes like tougher regulations on payday loans and better work and pay for low-income Ohioans. Republican Governor John Kasich’s plan to expand Medicaid strikes a chord with Rev. Ehrens, and he’s not the only faith leader who thinks it’s a good idea.

The Ohio Catholic Conference, along with leaders of Jewish, Methodist, Episcopalian and other faiths are also urging lawmakers to support the part of the Governor’s budget that includes expanding Medicaid.

Ahrens uses the story of Moses parting the Red Sea to urge lawmakers to buy into the plan to give 600 thousand more Ohioans access to healthcare through Medicaid.

We have to be all in. It’s not going to happen if we just stand here on the edge. We’ve got to go all in. We have to bury ourselves in the water and go all of the way to the other side. Because if this doesn’t happen, we have walked away from our greatest opportunity for freedom and liberation for 600,000 Ohioans.

Reverend Richard Burnett of Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus says expansion of Medicaid will help low income Ohioans. It’s a program he says that has personally affected his life.

“My Mother died at the age of 88 after spending three years at a very fine nursing facility here in this city…that was paid for and supported by Medicaid. My Mother, I believe, calls me to speak today and if you will, she calls you. It would be unreasonable not to support my mother.”

Bishop Gregory Palmer of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church appeals to an even higher power. He uses a scripture from Psalms to make the point of why Medicaid should be expanded.

Psalm 146 speaks of a God who executes justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, the Lord sets the prisoners free and the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. Providing the care needed to maintain health, prevent disease and restore health after injury or illness is a responsibility that each person owes all others and government owes to all….a responsibility government ignores at its own peril.

Maurice Thompson, an attorney with the conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, doesn’t agree with Bishop Palmer’s assessment of the scripture.

That is no version of Christianity that could possibly be real. God’s plan is indeed for us to take care of the poor.

“But it’s to do it voluntarily through charity,” Thompson says. “It’s not to do it by holding a gun to the heads of our neighbors and taxing them and then acting though you are somehow charitable because you take money out of your neighbor’s pocket and give it to charity. That’s the opposite of charity. That looks more like highway robbery.”

Thompson says there are two good reasons why Medicaid should not be expanded in Ohio.

“This is a chance for Ohio not to increase federal spending and Ohioans are federal taxpayers that are eventually going to have to pay those bills.

“And two, Medicaid expansion dramatically drives up the costs of private health insurance because when the government pays for Medicaid, they underpay and the only way providers of health care make up that loss is on the backs of those who purchase their health insurance privately or through private health insurance.”

Thompson has warned lawmakers who back the Medicaid expansion that they might face a primary opponent over that vote. And if that happens, Thompson says his group will provide help to those challengers. But Governor Kasich’s Medicaid Director, Gregg Moody, is urging lawmakers to be brave on this issue.

“Often what I hear underlying the concern is fear. ‘Can we pay for it? Will my decision result in a primary?’ But we can’t act out of fear.”

Moody and the faith leaders who are pushing the Medicaid expansion plan hope lawmakers will take a leap of faith instead and back Kasich’s plan.

But the two are at odds over the governor’s proposal to expand Medicaid to an extra 275,000 low-income Ohio adults. Click the play button above to hear why Kasich stands behind his decision, and why some Republicans are so upset.

The online exchanges are a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. They’re designed to bring customers together and increase their buying power and spread risk.

Governor John Kasich wrote in a letter to the Obama administration today that states lack flexibility to build and manage their own exchange, and would cost up to $22 million more than the start-up money available from the fed.

Joel Ario helped the Obama administration come up with a blueprint for the exchanges. He says having the fed run Ohio’s exchange will save some headaches, but he says the state will also lose some regulatory power.

“And that in the case of the exchange involves setting the standards on how insurers get into the exchange, picking the insurers who gets into the exchange, deciding how products will be approved for the exchange,” Ario says.

In his letter, Governor Kasich said “Ohio will not let the federal government take over regulatory control of its insurance industry,” which the governor says creates 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Moody says its uncertain how many more Ohioans will enroll in Medicaid beginning in January of 2014 when federal health care act mandates that all eligible individuals have coverage. One estimate predicts 900,000 more Ohioans will join the Medicaid rolls. Ohio and the federal government share the costs of Medicaid. In 2010, The Kaiser Family Foundation reports Medicaid costs in Ohio topped $15,000,000,000.

DeWine and the other attorneys general contend the law violates the religious freedoms of groups who oppose contraceptives.

The other states suiting are Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

Constitutional law experts say it isn’t a frivolous lawsuit, noting that recent Supreme Court rulings showed sympathies for religious organizations being burdened by government.

The Justice Department wants the lawsuit dismissed. The Obama administration is working on a compromise and has agreed not to enforce the rule until August 2013.

But state officials don’t appear to be in a hurry. Click the play button above to hear what Department of Insurance Director Mary Taylor is (or isn’t) doing to set up state-run health insurance exchanges.

DeWine, a Republican, told The Associated Press he is disappointed in Thursday’s decision and says a vote for the GOP presidential and congressional ticket this fall will be a vote to repeal the law assuring coverage for many uninsured Ohioans.

DeWine said opponents of the law scored a victory because justices did not expand the Commerce Clause, an outcome that DeWine says would have made Congress’ power virtually unlimited.

DeWine said the state’s involvement will continue in a lawsuit disputing the law on the grounds it compels people to violate their religious principles.

The Supreme Court has upheld the heart of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul — ruling in favor of the requirement that most Americans can be required to have health insurance, or else pay a penalty.

The decision means the historic overhaul will continue to take effect over the next several years, affecting the way countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

The ruling also hands President Barack Obama a campaign-season victory.

The court found problems with the law’s expansion of Medicaid. But even there, it said the expansion could proceed as long as the federal government does not threaten to withhold the entire Medicaid allotment to states if they don’t take part in the extension.

The court’s four liberal justices, Stephen Bryer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined Roberts in the outcome.

View the court’s opinion on the Affordable Healthcare Act.