Health Insurance Expansion Plans

COLUMBUS - Both major candidates for governor agree Ohio needs to expand Ohio health care coverage for its 1.3 million uninsured, but they disagree on how to pay for it.

"Many hardworking Ohioans cannot afford even basic health insurance coverage for themselves or their families," said Democrat Ted Strickland, a U.S. congressman who refuses to accept the federal government's health insurance benefit for employees.

Both Strickland and his Republican opponent, Ken Blackwell of Cincinnati, have policy proposals that borrow aspects of a Massachusetts health insurance program. Using a combination of state subsidies and sliding-scale premiums, that state adopted auniversal health insurance plan that would cover its 372,000 uninsured by July.