Ross Gallabrese SPOTLIGHT ON HEALTH — David Pepper, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said ensuring Ohioans continue to have access to health care is a priority while speaking Friday in front of Trinity Medical Center West.
STEUBENVILLE — Working to keep health care affordable and ensure Ohioans continue to have access to Medicaid and Medicare are key issues as the Ohio governor’s race begins to heat up, David Pepper, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said Friday afternoon.
“We are crisscrossing the state and everywhere we go, we hear the same thing: The cost of everything is just overwhelming — the cost of energy bills, property taxes, child care and health care,” Pepper said during a press conference held in front of Trinity Medical Center West.
Pepper, the former state chair of the Democratic Party, is running with Dr. Amy Acton. Their ticket is unopposed in the May 5 primary. While Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert McColley face two challengers for the Republican nomination, it is all but certain they will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.
Pepper said he and Acton, who served as the state’s medical director during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic before resigning, are trying to make Ohioans understand that Ramaswamy has held a dramatically different view on many of those issues, especially when it comes to Medicaid.
“A few months before he ran for governor, Ramaswamy said he believes that Medicaid and Medicare are mistakes,” Pepper said. “Once you look at the math and understand the role Medicaid and Medicare play in Ohio, you actually appreciate that the biggest mistake would be having allowed someone like him to be governor of the state of Ohio given his views.”
Pepper was referring to an answer Ramaswamy gave during an October 2024 interview on the “Ezra Klein Show” podcast.
“I believe they were, with the benefit of retrospect, particularly Medicaid, particularly the welfare state without work attachments required,” Ramaswamy said while responding when asked if he thought Medicaid and Medicare were mistakes.
The Ramaswamy campaign dismissed the criticism.
“Medicaid is a vital program that millions of Ohioans rely on and it must work better for the people it serves and for the taxpayers who fund it,” Connie Luck, a campaign spokesperson, said Friday afternoon. “Vivek believes Ohioans deserve a Medicaid system that delivers stronger results than we have seen during the past six decades, including basic work requirements for those who are able.
“That position is not extreme, it’s common sense,” she added. “The attacks from Amy Acton based on a cherry-picked 30 seconds from an 80-minute interview are blatantly dishonest but, sadly, typical of politics practiced by a government insider who is desperate to preserve the status quo.”
Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that provides free or low-cost health insurance to millions of low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities, covers 3 million Ohioans, Pepper said, while Medicare covers about 2.5 million of the state’s residents.
Pepper said preserving Medicaid is important across the state, especially in this region, where he said between 20% and 30% of residents rely on the program for health care and more than 40% of children born are covered by Medicaid.
He said making drastic changes to Ohio’s health care system would increase costs for everyone because when someone comes to a hospital without health coverage, that cost must be spread among all patients.
“In our case, myself and Dr. Acton, a doctor who people know well, we support Medicaid and Medicare and we want to protect Medicaid and Medicare as they are being attacked by the federal and state governments,” Pepper said. “We will do everything that we can to relieve medical costs, be it medical debt that is out of control — a lot of families have been bankrupted by medical debt and we have a plan to relieve that medical debt for a whole lot of Ohioans.
“We want to reduce prescription drug costs, we want to help shoulder and relieve the pressure of higher premiums and make sure everyone in Ohio can find access to affordable health care where they live,” he added. “The idea that you get rid of Medicaid and Medicare, like Ramaswamy says, would gut health care, make costs go up and make health care a lot less accessible so people would have to drive a lot farther to deliver a baby or go to the dentist. We’re all about accessible and affordable health care and will do everything we can to protect it.”
Eddie Abdalla, chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, said Acton and Pepper are focused on issues facing area residents.
“I’m thrilled that they are taking the Ohio Valley seriously,” Abdalla said. “There are a lot of issues that people are facing here that are related to costs, like groceries but especially health care costs. That’s why we were at the hospital — to bring attention to the fact that they actually have a plan that will benefit voters.
“I speak to a lot of people every day regarding what they are going through — in all walks of life, Democrats, Republicans and independents — and they all say the same thing — they’re worried about their premiums skyrocketing and they are worried they are not going to be able to pay their bills.”
