The morning newsletter of the Ohio Capital Journal
Reporting for the People
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By David DeWitt | Editor in Chief
Good morning Ohio!
Ohio is the state that saw the biggest drop in enrollment in health plans under the Affordable Care Act after the Republican-controlled Congress last year allowed pandemic-era subsidies to buy insurance on ACA exchanges to expire.
Ohio Republican U.S. Sens. Jon Husted, left, and Bernie Moreno, right. (Official photos.)
By Marty Schladen
Enrollment in Affordable Care Act health plans in Ohio dropped from just under half a million in February 2025 to 336,000 four months ago. That's a loss of nearly a third of enrollees, 32.4% or 161,385 people.
By Megan Henry
Costs, provider availability, and health insurance limitations were the top reasons Ohio children were not able to access mental healthcare, according to a recent study from the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
By Morgan Trau, WEWS
Ohio lawmakers are trying to fight for regulations on ticket resellers as scalpers continue to upcharge hundreds of dollars for local theatre tickets. Sometimes, those seats don’t even exist.
COMMENTARY
The Ohio burgee waving along with the national flag of the United States of America. (Stock photo from Getty Images.)
By Marilou Johanek
Before one of the Trump-backed “Freedom Trucks” rolls into the Ohio State Fair at the end of the month, state leaders should demand that the roving 18-wheeler museum, created by right-wing propagandists, includes a disclaimer about bias.
STATELINE
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
By Robbie Sequeira
In 1923, the city of Columbus, Ohio, enacted the first known off-street parking requirement for new apartment buildings. But in recent years, housing shortages have prompted Columbus and other cities and states to scale back or eliminate them.
By Sofia Resnick
President Trump has rolled back teen pregnancy prevention grants and repurposed a program for unintended pregnancies to promote childbearing. But several states, including GOP-led ones, have protected access to contraception in recent months.
By Tim Henderson
A new appeals court ruling is another blow to the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy that threatens millions of immigrants with unlimited incarceration without bond if they ever crossed a border illegally.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica
As part of the president’s mass deportation campaign, deportations of once-protected immigrant kids have tripled. Trump has moved to systematically roll back policies that provided immigrant minors access to legal counsel and relief from deportation.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jacob Fischler
A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to retake the Senate majority.
HISTORY THURSDAY
On July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, granting citizenship and “equal protection under the laws” to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people. Learn more
CATCHING OUR EYE
Pay to play. Cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer reports, “Doomed Ohio submetering bill passed amid flurry of GOP campaign donations.”
Donors representing apartment utility companies gave nearly $72,000 to top Ohio lawmakers and Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy around the same time legislators shoved through legislation in June that benefited them, state records show.
The timing of the donations led one key Democratic state senator to accuse GOP lawmakers of only moving the since-vetoed bill because of the contributions – a charge that legislative leaders sharply denied.
Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed the bill two weeks after its passage, saying it was “fundamentally flawed” and did not do enough to protect consumers.Teaching only one way to success. The Statehouse News Bureau’s Karen Kasler reports, “DeWine signs 13 bills, including one requiring schools teach the 'Success Sequence'“
Gov. Mike DeWine signed 13 bills into law Tuesday, leftovers from legislation lawmakers pushed through in June before a break that’s expected to continue until after the November election.
Among those was Senate Bill 276, which started as an uncontroversial plan addressing licenses for school psychologists coming to Ohio who hold licenses in six other states. But it got partisan opposition when a conservative-backed proposal called “the Success Sequence” was added last month.Baby delivery deserts. The Ohio Newsroom’s Erin Gottsacker reports, “One of Ohio's fastest growing counties will soon lose a labor and delivery unit.”
More than two dozen hospitals in Ohio have closed or consolidated maternity care since 2018, according to a count by the Ohio Hospital Association. By the end of this month, another one will join the mix.
OhioHealth plans to close its labor and delivery unit at Grady Memorial Hospital in central Ohio’s Delaware County on July 31.Vivek’s campaign credit card. WCMH’s Katie Millard and Colleen Marshall report, “Lawmaker files complaint alleging Ramaswamy improperly reported funds.”
Ohio Senate Democrats filed a complaint with the secretary of state Tuesday alleging Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose $500,000 in payments.
State Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) filed the complaint on Tuesday, alleging Ramaswamy and his running mate, state Senate President Rob McColley, violated campaign finance law by not specifying what the credit cards were used for. Smith argues that the credit card payments could reflect any purchases, allegedly violating the specificity that the law requires.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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