Cross-posted from the archived Media Trackers Ohio site.
The Columbus Dispatch continued its push for Medicaid expansion with a staggeringly incomplete March 15 story about an Ohio Coalition for Healthy Communities rally addressed by Governor John Kasich. Members of the Ohio Coalition for Healthy Communities include AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer, but Dispatch reporter Alan Johnson described the group as “a statewide consortium of mental-health and alcohol- and drug-addiction organizations.”
In his story about a rally which he did not report was backed by several major pharmaceutical companies, Johnson wrote that Kasich’s call for expanded Medicaid eligibility “would free millions of dollars for mental-health services.” This was stated as a fact, although it is only a Kasich administration assertion which treats federal spending as free money.
According to Governor Kasich, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) funding for Medicaid expansion is necessary to help Ohio’s poor and mentally ill. In reality, expanding Medicaid as directed by President Obama’s 2010 health law would “free” state funds by funneling billions in new deficit spending from the federal government – which is currently more than $16.5 trillion in debt – into Ohio.
“Gov. John Kasich, who proposed expanding Medicaid to save the state $404 million in avoided costs, spoke briefly at the rally at the Riffe Center,” Johnson wrote. “He said [Ohio Department of Mental Health Director] Plouck left his office in tears — happy — a few months ago when he told her he planned to expand Medicaid services, a move opposed by many fellow Republicans because it’s an offshoot of President Barack Obama’s health-care program.”
The amount of context omitted from this single paragraph is remarkable, even if the Dispatch is given a pass for failing to note the Ohio Coalition for Healthy Communities is backed by pharmaceutical companies, and for failing to acknowledge or even allude to the politics of a Republican dangling new deficit spending in front of healthcare industry lobbying groups.
First, Johnson made no effort to explain how the federal government can “save the state $404 million” – he cited promised financial benefits, but made no mention of the deficit spending that would make those “savings” possible.
Second, Johnson casually relayed with no further comment an admission from Governor Kasich that he had decided on Medicaid expansion “a few months ago.” Kasich has emphasized that his administration used all the time available to review the PPACA Medicaid expansion, even leveraging the results of a pro-expansion study released in January for political cover before his February 4 budget announcement.
As Media Trackers has reported and the Dispatch has not, Kasich’s office worked with the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, a socialized medicine lobbying group which also happens to be a member of the Ohio Coalition for Healthy Communities, to message his Medicaid expansion decision. Kasich sought no guidance from the free market health policy experts at the Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute, or Galen Institute for what the governor himself has described as “a complicated issue.”
Finally, Johnson reported that critics of Governor Kasich’s decision oppose the PPACA Medicaid expansion “because it’s an offshoot of President Barack Obama’s health-care program.”
This makes sense only in the economic vacuum of The Columbus Dispatch’s Medicaid expansion coverage, but aligns perfectly with the Kasich administration’s framing of opponents as callous, uninformed, or both.
Not only has the Dispatch downplayed or outright ignored arguments from health policy experts opposed to Medicaid expansion, at no point has any Dispatch writer challenged Kasich’s false claims about how PPACA Medicaid expansion funding works. Far from tangential concerns, those claims have been printed in the Dispatch repeatedly and have been wielded by Kasich as proof there is no excuse to reject the expansion.
The Dispatch seems happy to bolster the Kasich administration’s narrative.
“Kasich said he isn’t concerned about partisanship in the Medicaid debate,” Johnson wrote, quoting the governor as saying, “I don’t know what political party you are, and frankly, I don’t care. Every single human being is equal in the eyes of the Lord.”