CLEVELAND, Ohio – Health officials and advocates say a proposal that would make up to $10 million in the next two years available to target more than 700 older homes with known lead Çerez Politikası hazards is a “step in the right direction” to protect Ohio children.
The plan to leverage the money via the state’s Medicaid-supported Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) was included in Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal unveiled this week.
It didn’t even get a mention during a three-hour news conference in which Kasich highlighted his ideas but it is significant nonetheless, said Patricia Barnes, coordinator of the Ohio Healthy Homes Network.
It’s the first time in more than a decade, she said, that the state is seeking new money to help homeowners remove lead from older homes that have poisoned children.
Barnes and her group have urged state officials and lawmakers to reform Ohio’s approach to its lead poisoning problem by moving to routine inspections of rentals that would prevent children from being exposed to lead, similar to what a new Toledo law requires.
The proposal “doesn’t change the system as a whole,” Barnes said. “We still need that overhaul but it is something that can be built upon.”
The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has relied mainly on federal grants to sustain its lead poisoning prevention and enforcement efforts, and that money has dwindled in recent years. The state and localities have struggled to investigate and follow up on all cases where children are poisoned.
As part of Kasich’s proposed budget, Ohio would spend $157,000 in 2018 and 2019 from state coffers and net up to $10 million — $5 million per year – through CHIP to run the program.
The money isn’t yet a sure thing. But state officials seem confident Medicaid would allow Ohio to amend its current plan to include what’s called a Health Services Initiative, or HSI. HSIs are programs that have to directly improve the health of children eligible for CHIP or Medicaid, and Ohio would use its program for lead abatement and a registry of rental homes that are ‘lead-safe,’ according to its proposal.
Medicaid hasn’t traditionally paid for abatement, with states more often using funds to boost screening of children at risk for being poisoned by the toxin and increasing education and outreach efforts.
But last year, Medicaid approved a similar HSI request by Michigan for lead abatement activities in response to the Flint water crisis, which caused a spike in the number of children poisoned by lead.
Children living in Cleveland are poisoned at a higher rate than was seen in Flint during that crisis.
ODH officials say they would use the initial $10 million to first start to address the 767 properties statewide where property owners have not complied with orders to fix lead hazards.
Some of the properties in question are in areas where no other funding for abatement work is available or where homeowners or landlords don’t qualify for exisiting funding, according to ODH.
ODH plans to hire a contractor to oversee this lead abatement work, said ODH spokeswoman Melanie Amato, much the way it already does with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lead grants.
ODH would also create a Lead-Safe Registry with about $200,000 from the budget. Read more about that proposal here.
Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Terry Allan said $10 million in extra money in two years is a “step in the right direction,” especially if it helps remove lingering hazards here.
“We’ve been trying for so long to get some additional support for remediation, any support is great,” he said.
Rosemary Chawdry, a nurse and environmental health advocate from Marion, said getting the proposal in front of state lawmakers adds needed momentum at a crucial time, even if the proposals aren’t perfect.
Chawdry, who in the past worked for the state’s Medicaid program and was contacted by ODH to support its proposals, said: “This isn’t everything we would have liked but it’s a big step forward for Ohio. Maybe if everybody gets behind it we can succeed.”
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