Medicaid and research funding cuts being mulled at the state and federal level would exacerbate health needs in central Ohio, local health officials warn.

Franklin County Public Health, Columbus Public Health and the Central Ohio Hospital Council in partnership with dozens of community organizations unveiled the 2025 Franklin County Health Map June 18 at a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum. The 175-page report details what’s hurting the health of Ohio’s most populous county the most, including lack of quality housing or housing altogether, poor mental health, traumatic childhood experiences, poor infant and maternal health and violence and injury-related deaths.

The hospitals and health departments plan to start using the data in the report to help communities address these health needs and know how best to allocate resources to do so. But those resources, which have already seen cuts into the hundreds of millions in the region, could become even scarcer, even as the needs become greater.

And while Medicaid expansion isn’t currently on the chopping block, proposed federal changes to the program like work requirements, increased eligibility checks and new copays would result in lost coverage, industry leaders told The Dispatch. If Medicaid expansion funding from the federal government was cut by the thinnest of margins, Ohio’s current state budget holds trigger language that would end expansion and leave hundreds of thousands of adults in Ohio without coverage.

“It’s something we’re all bracing ourselves for and hoping that it doesn’t come to fruition,” said Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts, emphasizing that the region will see fewer insured people. Therefore, more people will rely on free clinics, and likely go without certain tests, screenings, medications and other types of essential care. Infant mortality, life expectancy and overdoses could get worse, she added.

Dr. Andrew Thomas, chief clinical officer for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, noted that the population insured through Medicaid has a high rate of mental illness, and to lose that coverage is like “tying one arm and one leg behind their back.”

Optimistic, but prepared to pivot

However, Thomas said he’s optimistic that the “worst case scenario” for Medicaid won’t come to be, as lawmakers in Washington and Columbus alike continue to hammer out their respective budgets.

But even if it does, Thomas said he’s “completely convinced” that those who worked together to build the health map would “come around the table again.”

Roberts also noted that the central Ohio community, whether it be public health, hospitals and others, knows how to pivot in crisis and work together. They already did it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We can do it,” assured Roberts.

Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com