It's no surprise, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich remains opposed to U.S. Senate efforts to produce a health care plan to replace Obamacare.

The second-term Republican has mounted a national campaign to oppose dramatic cuts to Medicaid coverage for the poor and, in a statement released this morning, revealed no change of heart over the revised plan produced by Senate GOP leaders. He continues to lobby for a bipartisan approach.

"The Senate plan is still unacceptable. Its cuts to Medicaid are too deep and at the same time it fails to give states the ability to innovate in order to cope with those reductions. It also doesn’t do enough to stabilize the insurance market, where costs are rising unsustainably and companies are simply dropping coverage," Kasich said.

"These shortcomings flow from the fact that the Senate plan commits the same error as Obamacare — it’s not bipartisan. It fails to bring solutions from both sides to the table that can ensure we aren’t simply replacing one divisive plan with another.

"We can still fix this and repeal and replace Obamacare with ideas that will work, but it means having leaders from both sides sitting down together and working in good faith on solutions that responsibly manage Medicaid and stabilize our insurance market. I’m hopeful that will happen and I know that a bipartisan group of governors, including myself, stands ready to help in any way to provide an affordable, sustainable and responsible system of health care for the American people," Kasich said.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow