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Gov. Kasich and Vice President Pence Spar Over New Senate Medicaid Plan

Kasich has withheld his support for the GOP dismantling of Obamacare because of steep cuts in Medicaid expansion.
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Kasich has withheld his support for the GOP dismantling of Obamacare because of steep cuts in Medicaid expansion.
Kasich has withheld his support for the GOP dismantling of Obamacare because of steep cuts in Medicaid expansion.
Credit KAREN KASLER / STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Kasich has withheld his support for the GOP dismantling of Obamacare because of steep cuts in Medicaid expansion.

The newest version of the U.S. Senate’s plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act is creating a rift between the vice president and Gov. John Kasich. The state’s Republican senator may be caught in the middle.

Kasich says the cuts to Medicaid in the Senate bill are too deep and that th ebill fails to give states the ability to innovate in order to cope with those reductions. He called it “unacceptable," which drew a reaction from Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence told the National Governors Association on Friday that Ohio has 60,000 disabled people on waiting lists. Kasich’s spokesman blasted that on Twitter as “fake news," saying those people are actually waiting for Medicaid waivers.

This potentially puts Republican Sen. Rob Portman in a tough spot. He’s said he’s undecided on the bill. And this spat comes at an interesting time – Pence is headlining the Ohio Republican Party’s annual state dinner on Saturday.

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Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.
Jo Ingles
Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.