KFF data show 265,840 Ohio expansion enrollees living with mental illness in 2021, plus 146,562 diagnosed with addiction to alcohol or other drugs, and that expansion group is exactly where the work requirement Mike Turner voted for in May 2025 and again on July 3, 2025 will apply.
Turner's two yes votes on the 2025 budget resolution were each the margin of its passage, and the $880 billion savings target it set for the Medicaid committee threatens the treatment Ohio built through the program: in 2021, 62% of Ohio Medicaid adults receiving medication for opioid use disorder were covered by the expansion.
Mike Turner's Votes on Medicaid Coverage for Mental Health and Addiction Care
- Ohio Expansion Adults With Mental Illness Must Log Hours Unless an Exemption Applies, Under Work Rules Turner Voted For. Turner's yes votes on May 22, 2025, when the count was 215 to 214, and on July 3, 2025, when it was 218 to 214, carried the One Big Beautiful Bill Act through the House. Its work requirement exempts a person who has a substance use disorder or one "with a disabling mental disorder," among other groups. The rule targets expansion Medicaid, which Ohio adopted and which KFF describes as "the primary coverage pathway for people with mental health or substance use disorders." An Ohioan whose mental illness is not judged "disabling" therefore has to report work hours unless another exemption applies, and the Commonwealth Fund predicts many of those dropped will be people who "will remain eligible for Medicaid but who did not successfully complete the paperwork."
- Opioid Treatment Paid by Medicaid Faces the $880 Billion Medicaid-Committee Target Turner's Deciding Budget Votes Set. Twice the budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 14, needed Turner: it won February 25, 2025 by 217 to 215 and April 10, 2025 by 216 to 214, and a switch by him alone would have tied it either day, and a tie fails. Its directive to the Medicaid committee read: "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000." Nationally Medicaid pays for "over half (56%) of those receiving medication" for opioid use disorder, and KFF warns that with the law's cuts, "a more tenuous fiscal climate for states may make those gains harder to sustain," referring to the mental health and addiction services states have added through Medicaid.
What Mike Turner's Votes Mean for Ohioans in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment
- 265,840 Ohio expansion adults with a mental illness are in the group the work rule covers. Mental illness was documented for 265,840 of Ohio's 2021 Medicaid expansion enrollees and a substance use disorder for 146,562, according to KFF. Once Ohio's requirement starts, no later than January 1, 2027, any of them without one of its exemptions must report hours, and a missed form can cut off the coverage that pays for their therapy and prescriptions.
- Expansion coverage pays for most Ohio Medicaid opioid treatment, putting it in the work rule's path. KFF data show that in 2021, 63% of the 116,325 adults on Ohio Medicaid diagnosed with opioid use disorder had coverage through the expansion; of the 77,361 who were prescribed medication for it, 47,825 were expansion enrollees. Those prescriptions are what an expansion adult stands to lose if the work rule ends their Medicaid.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mike Turner on Mental health and addiction
What is Mike Turner's record on mental health and addiction under Trump?
In the House, Mike Turner voted yes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and its Medicaid work rule reaches Ohio expansion adults living with a mental illness that falls short of the law's "disabling" line, barring some other exemption; his yes votes also decided the 2025 budget resolution that asked the Medicaid committee for $880 billion in savings. In Ohio, the expansion group the rule covers held 265,840 adults with a mental illness in 2021.
Does someone in rehab in Ohio still have to meet the work rule Mike Turner voted for?
No: the law Mike Turner voted for excuses a person "participating in a drug addiction or alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation program," and it also exempts people with a substance use disorder. Even so, the Commonwealth Fund expects many people dropped under work rules to be ones who stay eligible but never finished the required forms.
Does the Medicaid work rule Mike Turner voted for apply to people just out of jail?
After three months, yes: the law Mike Turner voted for exempts a person only if, during the previous three months, they were "an inmate of a public institution."
Last updated: 2026-10-27