State Information: Ohio
This state-specific page on Ohio provides new materials published by Families USA, key health contacts, state government links, news and views from the state, and other resources that might be helpful to Ohio advocates. Click on the links below to view the information you are interested in.
Key Health Contacts
Children's Defense Fund
395 East Broad St., Suite 330
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-221-2244
Fax: 614-221-2247
Email: cdfohio@cdfohio.org
Website: www.cdfohio.org
Faithful Reform in Health Care
3000 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: 216-325-0010
Website: http://www.faithfulreform.org/
Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati
215 East 9th Street, Suite 200
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone: 513-241-9400
Toll Free: 800-582-2682
Fax: 513-241-0047
Email: info@lascinti.org
Website: http://www.lascinti.org/
Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging
1335 Dublin Road, Suite 200A
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-481-3511
Fax: 614-481-3566
Email: oaaaa@infinet.com
Website: ohioaging.org
Created by the Older Americans Act of 1965, the Association of Area Agencies on Aging responds to the needs of the elderly as advocates, planners, funders, and by providing education, information, and referral services. The association also works with both the public and private sectors to generate support to help older adults and their caregivers remain in the most desirable and least restrictive living arrangements.
Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council
8 East Long Street, 12th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-466-5205
Toll Free: 800-766-7426
Fax: 614-466-0298
Website: www.state.oh.us/ddc
Ohio Legal Services Association
555 Buttles Avenue
Columbus, OH, 43215
Phone: 614-221-7201
Toll Free: 800-589-5888
Fax: 614-221-7625
Website: Ohio Legal Services Association
Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio (UHCAN OHIO)
370 South 5th St., Suite G3
Columbus, OH 43215
Phone: 614-456-0060
Fax: 614-456-0059
Email: columbus@uhcanohio.org
Website: www.uhcanohio.org
Voices for Children of Greater Cleveland
4019 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44103
Phone: 216-881-7860
Website: http://www.vfc-oh.org/
Working in Neighborhoods
3726 Llweellyn Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45223
Phone: 513-541-4109
Fax: 513-853-3944
Website:http://www.wincincy.org/
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State Government Links
State of Ohio website
State Department of Insurance website
Visit the Department of Medicaid page of the state's website for more information on Medicaid-related issues.
Healthy Start is the state's CHIP program.
Visit the Managed Care page of the state's website for information on Ohio's managed care program.
Senior Health Insurance Information and Counseling Website.
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Other Resources
Holding Health Homes Accountable for High-Quality Care: Payment and Quality Measures describes options for paying Health Home providers and measuring quality. It explains how advocates can identify and promote the best policies for consumers, and it includes examples from the following states: IA, MO, NC, NY, OH, OR, and RI. (February 2013) [Families USA]
Designing Consumer-Friendly Health Homes discusses six key decisions that states need to make when they set up Health Homes. It also explains the challenges that state advocates should address to ensure that Health Homes improve care for Medicaid beneficiaries. (January 2013) [Families USA]
Health Homes in Medicaid: Challenges and Opportunities for Advocates defines Health Homes and discusses their potential to improve care for vulnerable patients, the role that advocates can play, and challenges that states and advocates will face. It includes a chart that summarizes key details of Health Homes in IA, MO, NC, NY, OH, OR, and RI. (November 2012) [Families USA]
Medicaid Today; Preparing for Tomorrow: A Look at State Medicaid Program Spending, Enrollment, and Policy Trends describes policy changes in reimbursement, eligibility, benefits, delivery systems, and long-term care. It includes extensive state-specific information and a more in-depth look at case studies of the Medicaid budget and policy decisions in MA, OH, OR, and TX. (October 2012) [Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured]
Worry No More: Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions Are Protected by the Health Care Law provides estimates of how many people will be protected from discrimination based on their health status thanks to the health care law. For the first time, the state reports include county-level data, and they include state-level data that are broken down by age, income, and racial or ethnic group. (July-August 2012) [Families USA]
Being a Woman Just Got a Little Easier: How the Affordable Care Act Benefits Women outlines what women stand to gain under the Affordable Care Act. (July 2012) [Families USA]
Dying for Coverage: The Deadly Consequences of Being Uninsured estimates the number of Americans who are dying prematurely due to lack of health coverage. It includes state-level data that are broken down by week, month, and year that were generated using the methodology originally developed by the Institute of Medicine. (June 2012) [Families USA]
Decoding Your Health Insurance: The New Summary of Benefits and Coverage provides national and state-level data on the nearly 173.5 million people with private insurance who will be helped by these plain-language summaries that are required by the health care law. (May 2012) [Families USA]
Good Business Sense: The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit in the Affordable Care Act provides national and state-level estimates of the number of small businesses that will be eligible for this tax credit and of how much the credits will be worth. It also includes data on how many workers could benefit as a result, broken down according to racial and ethnic group. (May 2012) [Families USA and Small Business Majority]
Medicaid: Essential to America's Hospitals and Communities provides state-level data highlighting how important hospitals are to state residents at every stage of life, whether or not they are covered by Medicaid. It also explains that hospitals are vital economic engines and that federal Medicaid cuts could harm many communities. (March 2012) [Families USA]
The Bottom Line: How the Affordable Care Act Helps America's Families shows the net financial effects of the Affordable Care Act on family budgets. We found that lower- and middle-income families, both uninsured and insured, will be financial winners. | State Reports (October 2011) [Families USA]
Medicaid's Impact in the States: Helping People with Serious Health Care Needs examines how vital Medicaid is for residents with cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, or heart disease or stroke. For these people, Medicaid can be the difference between life and death, and program cuts would put them at risk. Released in partnership with three other groups. (September 2011) [Families USA]
Jobs at Risk: Federal Medicaid Cuts Would Harm State Economies provides state-level data that show the devastating impact the House Republican budget proposal would have. The proposal's substantial Medicaid cuts would harm program enrollees and their families and lead to a loss of business activity and jobs in all states. | Calculator (June 2011) [Families USA]
Cutting Medicaid in the States: Harming Seniors and People with Disabilities Who Need Long-Term Care provides state-specific numbers on how many people would be affected by cuts to Medicaid long-term care spending, as well as how Medicaid helps families, state workers, and businesses. (May 2011) [Families USA]
House Republicans Propose to Slash Funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and Other Health Coverage Programs takes a closer look at how the recent budget proposal would harm seniors, children, and state economies, including state-specific numbers. (April 2011) [Families USA]
States Are Benefitting from Provisions of the Affordable Care Act lists the number of people in each state who are already benefiting from each of five provisions. The provisions include measures that are helping small businesses provide coverage to their workers, helping seniors get free preventive care, and protecting children with pre-existing conditions. | Table (March 2011) [Families USA]
Protecting Seniors and People with Disabilities: Why It Is Important to Preserve the Maintenance of Effort Requirement in the Affordable Care Act discusses how stripping the maintenance of effort requirement from the ACA will have negative consequences for the many people who depend on Medicaid by allowing states to change eligibility requirements. (February 2011) [Families USA]
Worry Less Spend Less: Out-of-Pocket Spending Caps Protect America's Families examines how the Affordable Care Act will protect insured people from high medical costs through new caps on out-of-pocket spending. It provides state-level estimates of how many residents will have spending that exceeds these caps and by how much, and it looks at how many of those residents work for small businesses. (February 2011) [Families USA]
Rate Review: Spotlight on State Efforts to Make Health Insurance More Affordable provides the results of a survey of 50 state rate review statutes and follow-up interviews with insurance regulators in 10 states (AK, CT, CO, ID, LA, ME, OH, PA, SC, and WI) to find out how rate regulation works in practice. (December 2010) [Kaiser Family Foundation]
How Health Reform Helps Communities of Color is a series of state-based fact sheets that discuss how provisions in the Affordable Care Act--both those for the general public and those specifically designed to eliminate health disparities--help communities of color in each state. (September-October 2010) [Families USA]
Lower Taxes, Lower Premiums: The New Health Insurance Tax Credit examines how this tax credit will help both insured and uninsured Americans. It provides data on the number of people eligible, the total dollars available, and on how it will help working families in particular. (September 2010) [Families USA]
A Helping Hand for Small Businesses: Health Insurance Tax Credits analyzes the health reform provision that provides tax credits to small employers to help them buy health coverage for their workers. This report, which was commissioned along with Small Business Majority, provides national and state-level data on the number of small businesses eligible for the credit in 2010, as well as the number eligible for the maximum tax credit. (July 2010) [Families USA]
State-Based Advocacy As a Tool for Expanding Children’s Coverage: Lessons from Site Visits to Six IAC Grantee States presents key findings from six states (AR, CO, IA, OH, TX, WA) that received grants from the Insuring America’s Children: States Leading the Way (IAC) program, which supports state advocates working to expand children’s health coverage in 16 states. The report details effective strategies used by advocates in each state according to the state’s political and economic climate, providing a roadmap for advocates around the country working to expand children’s health coverage. (July 2010) [Center for Studying Health System Change, Mathematica, and the Urban Institute]
Strategic Engagement of Policymakers Is Key to Advancing a Children’s Health Care Coverage Policy Agenda looks at how children’s health advocates in seven states (AR, CO, IA, OH, RI, TX, and WA) established strong relationships with policy makers in order to move their agendas forward. These advocates’ experiences provide useful lessons for other advocates pursuing expansions in health coverage in their state. (July 2010) [Center for Studying Health System Change, Mathematica, and the Urban Institute]
Health Reform: New Opportunities for States to Invest in Home- and Community-Based Services is a series of state-specific fact sheets that explore the new options for states to expand home- and community-based services through the health reform law and the reasons why expanding this type of services is a good idea. (Summer 2010) [Families USA]
Health Reform: Help for Ohioans with Pre-Existing Conditions discusses how, under health reform, no one will be denied coverage, charged a higher premium, or sold a policy that excludes coverage of essential benefits because of pre-existing conditions. The report presents the number of state residents with diagnosed pre-existing conditions who, absent reform, would be at risk of being denied coverage in the individual insurance market. It breaks down this number by age, income, and race. | National Report (May 2010) [Families USA]
How Health Reform Helps the People of Ohio looks at the many benefits that health reform will bring to the state, including cracking down on insurance company abuses, ending runaway premiums, and providing financial security. (May 2010) [Families USA]
Health Coverage in Ohio: How Will Health Reform Help? discusses the major gaps in Ohio's health coverage system and how health reform will address these gaps and help Ohioans, including the insured, the uninsured, people in Medicare, and small businesses. (March 2010) [Families USA]
Lives on the Line: The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health Reform examines what would happen if Congress fails to pass health reform. Specifically, it provides national and state-level estimates of the number of deaths that would occur due to lack of health coverage if reform doesn't pass. It also quantifies how many Americans died due to lack of health coverage since the last effort to pass reform in 1994. (March 2010) [Families USA]
Guide to Finding Health Coverage: Ohio Millions of Americans have no health insurance, and finding health insurance can be difficult. If you are looking for coverage, this guide can help point the way. Whether you have recently lost your job, are an early retiree, or have a serious medical condition, this guide includes numerous resources that may help you find the coverage you need. (Updated 2009) [Families USA]
Healthcare Reform Will Help Ohio's Small Businesses examines how the state's small businesses struggle with high health insurance premiums and how health reform will address this problem, making health insurance more affordable for businesses and individuals. (September 2009) [Small Business Majority]
The Uninsured: A Closer Look–Ohioans without Health Insurance examines how many state residents were uninsured during 2007-2008. The report also takes a closer look at the number of uninsured, who they are, and how long they were uninsured. It mirrors the data in our national report, Americans at Risk: One in Three Uninsured. (April 2009) [Families USA]
Ohio State Expansions visit here for archival information on expansions within the state. (Last updated 2009) [Families USA]
Premiums versus Paychecks: A Growing Burden for Ohio's Workers. The impact of changes in employer-based health insurance premiums and earnings in Ohio. (September 2008) [Families USA]
Health Care and the Economy in Two Swing States: A Look at Ohio and Florida examines the pocketbook problems facing people in Ohio and Florida. The surveys take an in-depth look at the impact of medical bills on family finances and health care, and they provide insight into the ways that health care costs affect people's daily decisions. (July 2008) [The Kaiser Family Foundation]
Bad Medicine: The President's Medicaid Regulations Will Weaken Ohio's Economy States are facing a recession and reduced revenues. In 2007, the Bush Administration issued seven new regulations that together will strip an estimated $50 billion in federal funds from states over the next five years. These state-specific reports quantify the harm that these regulations will cause to state economies in terms of lost federal dollars, business activity, jobs, and wages. (April 2008) [Families USA]
Dying for Coverage in Ohio For the more than 47 million Americans who are uninsured, lack of health insurance can have dire consequences: medical debt, missed care, and even premature death. This first-ever state-specific report examines the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance. (March 2008) [Families USA]
Too Great a Burden: Ohio's Families at Risk finds that more and more Ohio families are spending a substantial share of their incomes on health care costs, and most of these families have insurance. Faced with high health care costs and tight budgets, families are turning to credit cards to finance their care, and many are falling into medical debt. (December 2007) [Families USA]
When an Apple A Day Isn't Enough: Students in Ohio Speak Out about Health Care contains the winning essays from the "When an Apple a Day Isn't Enough" national essay contest as well as basic information about why health insurance matters for children. [Campaign for Children's Health Care]
Guide to Finding Health Insurance Coverage: Millions of Americans have no health insurance, and finding health insurance can be difficult. If you are looking for coverage, this guide can help point the way. Whether you have recently lost your job, are an early retiree, or have a serious medical condition, this guide includes numerous resources that may help you find the coverage you need. (Updated March 2007) [Families USA]
No Shelter from the Storm: Ohio's Uninsured Children. This fact sheet takes a closer look at uninsured children in Ohio—who they are and what kinds of services they miss out on as a result of being uninsured. Written by Families USA for the Campaign for Children's Health Care. (September 2006) [Families USA]
The Enzi Bill: Bad Medicine for Ohio: This fact sheet describes how passage of S. 1955, the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization Act (HIMMA), would affect consumer protections that apply to the health insurance market in Ohio. (March 2006) [Families USA]
NACHRI, in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), has released 2005 updates of their state-specific Medicaid fact sheets. These fact sheets detail the importance of the Medicaid program to the health care of children in every state, as well as the critical role children's hospitals and pediatricians play in serving all children. Click here for a map that will take you to information specific to your state. (July 2005) [National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI)]
Paying a Premium: The Added Cost of Care for the Uninsured in Ohio: A fact sheet with state-level data showing the dollar impact on private health insurance premiums of care provided to the uninsured. (June 2005) [Families USA]
Medicaid Cuts Are Bad Medicine: This fact sheet describes how Medicaid helps your state's economy, supports the state's health care infrastructure, provides essential health care to the most vulnerable residents, and reduces the number of uninsured. (January 2005) [Families USA]
The Uninsured: A Closer Look: A fact sheet with state-level data from One in Three: Non-Elderly Americans without Health Insurance, 2002-2003. (June 2004) [Families USA]
Good Medicine for State Economies, 2004 Update: Medicaid provides essential health care services for an estimated 51 million people of all ages and economic classes. Medicaid also plays a unique role in stimulating state economies. This report provides national and state-level data on the effects of Medicaid spending on state business activity, employment, and employee earnings. These updated numbers can be used to predict the economic impact of potential state Medicaid spending increases or cuts in fiscal year 2005.| Medicaid Calculator with updated figures (May 2004) [Families USA]
Who's Uninsured in Ohio and Why? is a four-page fact sheet providing information on the uninsured population in the state -- their numbers and characteristics and some of the reasons they are uninsured. (November 2003) [Families USA]
Families USA has prepared state fact sheets that spell out the different amounts of help the House and Senate Medicare prescription drug bills would provide to low-income beneficiaries. Click here for this state's fact sheet. (July 2003) [Families USA]
Medicare+Choice After Five Years: Lessons for Medicare's Future-Findings from Seven Major Cities examines the reasons why private health plans, health care providers, and beneficiaries are so widely dissatisfied with the M+C program. To do this, the authors reviewed the M+C program in seven cities that have varying payment rates and local health care structures, as follows: Cleveland, Houston, Long Island, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, and Tucson. The authors also attempt to understand how the program could be stabilized. (September 2002) [The Commonwealth Fund]
Go Directly to Work, Do Not Collect Health Insurance: Ohio is one of the states studied in this report, which provides documentation of the health coverage effects of welfare reform on low-income parents. (June 2000) [Families USA]
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