Ohio gov backs Medicaid expansion, budget amendment

HELENA – Ohio Gov. John Kasich told a small group of Montana legislative Republicans they should not oppose expansion of Medicaid on the basis of "strict ideology."

"I gotta tell you, turning down your money back to Montana on an ideological basis, when people can lose their lives because they get no help, doesn't make a lot of sense to me," Kasich told Republican lawmakers.

Kasich, a possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, is touring state legislatures across the West to drum up support for a constitutional convention to modify the U.S. Constitution to include a balanced budget amendment.

At a closed-door gathering of Legislative Republicans at the Montana Capitol, Kasich took questions from GOP lawmakers about his balanced budget amendment plan.

However, the discussion quickly turned into a spirited party debate about Medicaid expansion when Sen. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman, challenged Kasich on the Ohio governor's support for Medicaid expansion in his home state.

Ohio is among 28 states and the District of Columbia that have accepted federal dollars to expand Medicaid coverage to low-income people. In 2013 the Republican-controlled Montana Legislature killed a bill that would have accepted federal dollars to expand health care coverage through insurance companies to some 70,000 additional low-income Montanans.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday unveiled a similar plan for the 2015 session, but Republican leaders have not welcomed the proposal warmly.

"I would be singing your praises and trying to convince you to run for president if you said no to Medicaid expansion," Sales said.

Sales, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and former House speaker, said the Ohio governor's support for a balanced budget amendment was "hypocritical" in light of Kasich's support of Medicaid expansion.

Kasich said the Supreme Court gave the states the option to "reclaim" the money they'd sent to Washington, D.C.

"There's no money in Washington, it's my money," Kasich said. "I brought my money back to Ohio. And what did we do with it? We treat the mentally ill, we treat the drug addicted, and we help the working poor stop going to emergency rooms and forcing me to pay for their medical bills because they go there sicker."

Kasich said taking care of the poor is a core conservative value, and a policy conservative icon Ronald Reagan even supported. In 1986 Reagan signed a bill that allowed states to add poor children and pregnant women to Medicaid

"I don't know if you've ever read Matthew 25, but I'd recommend it to you...about 'do you feed the homeless and do you clothe the poor,'" Kasich told Sales. "I'm a believer that it is in the conservative tradition to make sure we help people get on their feet so they then are not dependent."

Kasich said it is appropriate for the federal government to provide resources and partner with the states "to solve problems."

"In my state it's working," Kasich said. "People are healthier, they're getting their lives back, they're getting work, and that's the reason I'm doing it."

Kasich said Sales' opposition to Medicaid expansion is a "legitimate position," but one that is based on "strict ideology."

"It's not based on the practicality of what the heck is happening in the streets out here," Kasich said.