***Press Release*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 21, 2013

Contact: Adam Warren (614) 466-4583

Turner Praises Medicaid Expansion Vote

Controlling Board ends frustrating struggle for greater healthcare access
COLUMBUSToday, State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) issued the following statement after the seven-member State Controlling Board approved the use of over $2.5 billion of federal funds for Medicaid expansion, as allowed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The move will allow families earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level to be eligible for Medicaid, as well as childless adults. Overall, the expansion will provide coverage to an additional 275,000 Ohioans, including 26,000 veterans and 50,000 battling mental illness or addiction. Today is a great day for Ohio and all of those who call it home. This vote ends a frustrating, months-long process of stalling by Republican legislators determined to block Medicaid expansion at all costs. While it is disappointing that the full legislature was not permitted to vote on this measure, I am glad that the Controlling Board is able to accomplish what Republican leadership lacked the will to do. Ohios working poor need access to health insurance and medical care, and soon they will have it. I hope that the same personalities who sought to block Medicaid expansion in the legislature do not attempt to do so through the courts. It is not only morally right, but economically advantageous. Ohio cant afford to wait any longer for 275,000 more of its citizens to have access to critical healthcare services, and the nearly 30,000 jobs that expansion has the potential to create.

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