Ohio Legislative Update: Nursing has their pulse.

[liberalnurse]

Ohio Nursing Association indeed fights the good fight. I wish to share with you my free time passion.....

Legislative Update
June 13, 2005


Amid tension about the widening scandal involving problems with the state’s investments under the auspices of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the budget conference committee held its first public session last Thursday to begin finalizing the General Assembly’s work on Amended Substitute HB 66. While not specifically dealing with the Workers’ Compensation problem, it was clear the committee Republicans wanted the issue to remain off the table and not alluded to in of any questions or statements made by minority party members.

The committee is made up of chair Rep. Chuck Calvert (R-Medina); Rep. Tom Raga (R-Mason); Rep. Dale Miller (D-Cleveland); Sen. John Carey (R-Wellston); Sen. Ron Amstutz (R-Wooster); and Rep. Tom Roberts (D-Dayton). The committee has slightly over one week to complete the work of reconciling hundreds of differences between the Senate and House-passed versions of the mammoth bill.

The task should be made easier by a better than expected revenue/expenditure forecast that was based on actual performance data from the latter part of FY ’05 rather than economic projections. As a result, legislators may be able to restore some of the House and Senate cuts made to the Medicaid program affecting vital services and programs. Republican leadership has already indicated a significant portion of the cuts to Disability Medical Assistance could be restored, but cuts in Medicaid support for working families have not fared as well.

Advocacy groups (of which ONA is a member) are now focusing on the latter issue in hopes of securing legislative recognition of the importance of restoring funding that allows working parents with incomes between 90-100% of the Federal Poverty Level to continue to receive Medicaid coverage. Simply put, without further legislative action, a single mom with two kids will lose her health coverage if her yearly income goes above $14,481 instead of $16,090. The approximate savings over the two-year budget cycle is $37 million; however, a significant portion of the 25,000 affected people will likely come back onto Medicaid as sicker patients, which will eat into the projected savings.

ACTION NEEDED: Please call your state Senator and Representative and ask them to support restoration of Medicaid coverage for working parents. You can reach your legislators at 614-466-2000 or 1-800-282-0253.

Medication Aide Issue: ( A real pet peeve for me)

In addition to hundreds of other issues, the conference committee will, of course, also be deciding whether to accept the Senate or House version of the medication aide language and possibly whether any further revisions are necessary. ONA has been urging the committee members to accept the Senate version over the House language, although discussions are ongoing among key legislators about whether to add a provision that would require legislative action before the use of medication aides becomes part of permanent law. ONA certainly is supportive of that change, but wants to make sure we do not lose any of the gains approved by the Senate in exchange for that revision.

While ONA continues to remind legislators that its members oppose the decision to create medication aides in Ohio, many lawmakers actually perceive the end result as a “victory” for nursing because we were able to get most of the changes we requested in the Senate version of the bill.

ACTION NEEDED: Continue to urge adoption by the conference committee of the Senate version of the medication aide language. Again, the individuals to contact are your own state Senator or Representative as noted above.