It’s amateur hour in the Governor’s Mansion again. Today, the Cincinnati Enquirer has a story about how Governor Kasich’s budget is going to result in a huge hits for hospitals which are scheduled to lose nearly half a billion in Medicaid funding. The story also reports how children’s hospitals like the one in Cincinnati are going to take a disproportionately larger cut than adult hospitals.
Yes, you’ve read that right, Governor Kasich’s actually penalizes hospitals who provide medical services to children. This, of course, has to be a huge, horrible mistake, right? RIGHT?!?
"We didn’t really see that coming," [Kasich’s Director of Health Transformation Greg] Moody said. "It’s an unintended consequence. It’s not an outcome we want."
Whew… it’s just a huge oversight by a rookie Administration. I’d much prefer finding out that the Administration accidentally made Medicaid cuts disproportionately fall on Children’s Hospitals. I mean, even I can’t believe that Kasich’s budget would single out Children’s Hospitals for bigger cuts in Medicaid funding over adult hospitals. That’s approaching “let’s burn orphans in the winter to stay warm” type policies.
Except there’s one tiny little, itty, bitty problem:
Kasich’s budget cuts specifically, and intentionally, zeros out funding for Children’s Hospitals.
Medicaid is responsible for 44% of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s revenues, which is nationally recognized as one of the best, if not the best, children’s hospital in the country.
And John Kasich is taking a hatchet to their budget and then lying about it.
