A lack of methodology data from a new report on the expansion of Medicaid in Ohio means it’s impossible to validate the results, one expert says.
The Buckeye Institute’s Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and policy vice president, spoke out about the 2018 Medicaid Expansion Assessment by the Ohio Department of Medicaid. The report is a followup to a 2016 assessment.
“It is impossible to assess the accuracy of the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s claims in its latest assessment report, which does not include even a basic methodology,” Hederman said. “Unfortunately, without a methodology, this report does little to advance our understanding of the impact of Medicaid expansion.
“What we do know from the 2016 assessment, which also used self-reported surveys, is that the Department of Medicaid was unable to do the analysis it initially planned, ‘because of lower than expected participation from people who were younger, male, and living in metro counties.’ This fact made the 2016 report useless in providing an unbiased quantitative assessment of the impact of Medicaid expansion. If the 2018 report also fails in this regard, this assessment will be similarly unhelpful.”
The Ohio General Assembly called for periodic reports after the state expanded Medicaid in 2014 under ObamaCare. The purpose is to measure enrollees’ access and use of healthcare and their health and financial status.
The Methodology Report is “forthcoming and will be available through the Ohio Department of Medicaid,” the 2018 Medicaid Expansion Assessment says.
Even as Congress has failed to replace ObamaCare, some federal executive offices have denied or delayed states’ requests for relief, a recent editorial in The Hill said. A federal court blocked a waiver request from Kentucky to require able-bodied recipients to work. Ten other states, including Ohio, filed similar requests.
