New polling shows Ohio voters see library services as “everyday necessities,” among the highest rated services offered at the local level.

Polling conducted by Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of the Ohio Library Council and the Ohio Township Association showed 90% of participating voters found public libraries “important to the community.”

Voters praised the access to programs for Ohioans of all kinds, along with low-income resident assistance, learning, technology, and engagement. This time of year in particular, libraries also serve as resources for tax services.

“Ohioans don’t just appreciate their libraries, they rely on them on a daily basis,” said Michelle Francis, executive director of the Ohio Library Council, in a statement on the study. “They are locally supported, widely used, and deeply embedded in their communities.”

Of those interviewed for the survey, 44% said they or a family member have utilized public library services in the past month, and nearly 70% said they received help from the public library. This number included a majority of Republican, Democrat, and independent voters, according to the report.
“Nearly 9 out of 10 Ohio voters believe they get their money’s worth in services from their local libraries for the taxes they pay, including 83% of Republicans, 85% of independents, and 93% of Democrats,” researchers stated

Data from the Ohio Library Council said Ohioans visit state libraries more than 48 million times per year, and more than 7 million Ohioans have library cards.

Ohio libraries receive much of their funding from the state’s Public Library Fund, which comes out of the General Revenue Fund. In the most recent state budget, lawmakers changed the funding mechanism from a percentage of the General Revenue Fund’s tax revenue to a lump sum. For fiscal year 2026, that amounted to $490 million in state funding, and $500 million in 2027. Library advocates including the council opposed the move to a lump sum, expressing concern that the line-item could be more at risk for total elimination at any time now that it’s not a percentage of the budget.

The State Library of Ohio also took a cut in the state budget, according to State Librarian Mandy Knapp. The SLO isn’t a public library, but works as a resource-sharing partner with other libraries in the state, along with providing grant funding. The fate of that grant funding was unclear last year as the Trump administration attempted to slash funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, through which the State Library of Ohio receives the funding for local grants.

Knapp previously told the Capital Journal that the grant funds are used for summer reading programs, cultural conservation efforts, and implementation of the Science of Reading in library programs.

In November, a federal court blocked the dismantling to the institute, averting a funding cut that Knapp said would “totally and utterly devastate” the library.

The polling also analyzed public opinion of township services across the state, and found that less than half of participants knew the funding model for townships, which is primarily funded through property taxes. They also receive some state funding through the Local Government Fund, though that fund has dwindled over the years.

“Township governments exist to provide the services residents count on most,” said Heidi M. Fought, executive director of the Ohio Township Association, in a statement. “Local funding allows communities to decide what works best for them.”

According to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, after the Local Government Fund was frozen from 2001 to 2008, it was returned to the state budget, set to receive 3.68% of the tax revenue from the General Revenue Fund. The fund took a major hit during the Great Recession because of lower tax revenue, and lawmakers reduced the fund by 50% in the 2012-2013 budget.

In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the fund saw 1.66% of tax revenue, far below the 3.68% of 2008. The fund saw marginal increases in the years that followed, and eventually went up to 1.7% starting in 2023.

The most recent budget boosted that fund to 1.75% of the GRF, despite advocates like the County Commissioners Association of Ohio requesting that the legislature return the fund to past levels with a boost to 3.68%.

A vast majority of voters polled in the recent study said local voters “should be responsible for deciding how to allocate township services.”

Voters said first responder services like the fire department and ambulances were among the top priorities for funding, along with maintenance of roads and bridges, and police departments.

In both the library and township services, more than half of voters said the two areas “provide many of the basic services people rely on today,” according to the study.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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Ohio’s mental health landscape is consistently seeing increases in demand, including among medical professionals like nurses and physicians, who are asking for more help.

“We just know health care comes with additional stresses,” said Dr. Laurie Hommema, family medicine physician and senior medical director of well-being at OhioHealth.

OhioHealth created the Well-Being Center, where employees access services, including individual counseling, group services, and “critical incident response.”

Last year, the health care system said it increased the number of “covered counseling visits” for employees from eight to 12 annually.

Hommema and the Well-Being Center then saw an 8% increase in counseling requests from employees in the first nine months of the year, compared with the entirety of 2024.

In Ohio as a whole, requests for behavioral health services have gone up significantly over the years.

According to data from the state of Ohio, demand for the services went up more than 350% from 2013 to 2019, an average increase of 29% per year.

The data showed mental health services accounted for 52% of the total behavioral health demand in Ohio.

The data comes as the state suffers from a mental health shortage in nearly all of its 88 counties, contributing to the struggle for Ohioans to access the care they need.

“With this information, it became clear that there was a need to focus on building up a strong workforce equipped to handle the mental health and addiction needs of Ohioans,” the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health found in the research.

While the demand for a workforce to help with mental health has increased, research over the years has also shown a need for more mental health when it comes to medical professionals.

A 2025 study published in the International Nursing Review found anxiety and depression rates ranging from 23% to 61% among nurses in 35 countries.

About 18% of those who self-reported mental health needs said they experienced symptoms of “burnout.”

Burnout is considered an “occupational phenomenon” by the World Health Organization, where chronic workplace stress can cause exhaustion and other struggles related to one’s work.

In the research published in the study, nurses noted “more frequently engaging with self-care practices” compared with engagement before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost half of the nurses participating in the study also reported “experiencing public aggression due to their identity as a nurse.”

Over the past five years OhioHealth has had its well-being program, Hommema said they’ve gone from about 8,000 employee interactions per year to 28,000.

With a landscape of health in Ohio that includes large facilities and very small clinics, from urban settings to deeply rural areas, health care workers have all kinds of experiences that could warrant the need for mental health assistance, ranging from daily health trauma to stressors connected to care access, or lack thereof.

“I think the tension around care delivery and patients needing to be far away from home to get care, it’s a kind of unique health care environment in Ohio,” Hommema said.

“I definitely think you see some tensions from that, that sometimes manifest perhaps in workplace violence or tensions amongst the health care team.”

The struggles of medical professionals continue as federal budget cuts to Medicaid and expired tax subsidies from the Affordable Care Act reduce the ability for Ohioans and Americans to receive coverage, thus increasing the likelihood of a sicker public. Hommema said that adds a “moral distress component” to the nurses and doctors’ work.

One of the original designers of the Affordable Care Act, former New Jersey congressman Robert Andrews, said the country has seen a positive shift in ideas around mental health, but hasn’t seen the shift needed to deal with the issue comprehensively.

Therapy for medical professionals and others should be understood by the government as an “investment,” just like easy access to care should be seen that way, he said.

“The caregivers don’t do a great job giving care if they themselves are unhealthy,” Andrews said.

The former congressman now heads up the Health Transformation Alliance, a coalition that seeks to improve health care access through American employers.

The alliance praised Hommema’s work for prioritizing mental health in the medical health care field. Andrews said the care should be replicated throughout the country, so the stigma of mental health, and the perceived separation between the mental and physical health can be eliminated.

“The idea that there is mental health on one side and health on the other just isn’t true,” Andrews said. “A synonym for mental health is health.”

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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Ohio received a bump in funding for child care last week, a small win in a sector that is still facing uncertainty and an affordability crisis.

Analysis by advocacy group Groundwork Ohio shows average child care costs in Ohio as of 2023 at more than $9,500 per year for preschool-age care, more than $11,000 per year for toddler care, and more than $12,000 a year for infant care.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth was awarded $14.7 million in federal grants “to support access to early care and education services,” according to a press release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

The federal funding comes from the Preschool Development Grant – Birth to Five, distributed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“This funding will help Ohio better support families and make sure young children have access to quality care and learning opportunities during their most important years,” DeWine said in a statement.

The state said the money will be used to upgrade technology and research, help early childhood education workers with curriculum development, professional learning opportunities, and “business support resources.”

A total of $250 million was distributed through the federal grant program, and Ohio’s director of the Department of Children and Youth, Kara Wente, said the grant would allow the state “to build on the work already happening in communities across the state.”

“By improving coordination and planning, we can make it easier for families to find the services they need and ensure young children get a strong start,” she said in a statement.

The state General Assembly approved funding for child care through its most recent budget, with funding going to the Child Care Choice voucher program and a pilot cost-sharing child care model.

But advocates were disappointed when eligibility for Publicly Funded Child care was left at 145% of the federal poverty level, despite pushes to raise the level to 160% or 200%.

Programs to provide state grant funding for recruitment and child care provider mentorship went down from previous budget drafts, ending up with $2.85 million in funds over the two years of the budget, passed in 2025.

Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of child advocacy group Groundwork Ohio, has said Ohio faces a budgetary shortfall of $600 million after one-time federal dollars fade away for good in 2028.

State child care advocates have been pushing the federal government to bring current and further funding to the sector.

They have signed on to a letter with dozens of other child care organizations around the country to urge the government to continue funding the Child Care Development Block Grant, along with $10 billion in funding that was frozen in certain states after fraud allegations about Minnesota child care facilities were circulated by a right-wing YouTuber earlier this year.

The funding freeze for Minnesota and other states was blocked temporarily by a federal judge in January, but the lawsuit in which the ruling was made continues.

As funding comes and goes, the cost of child care continues to balloon, and a lack of access and affordability is costing the country billions, according to a new analysis by ReadyNation, a research group partnered with the Institute for Child Success.

The study, released this week, showed insufficient child care for children younger than 5 costs the U.S. economy $172 billion per year in “lost earnings, productivity, and economic activity.”

It showed a $5.3 billion economic impact for Ohio alone.

“Challenges mount over time: with less training and less experience, these parents face diminished career prospects, reducing their earning potential,” the study stated. “And less parent income, along with parental stress, can have harmful short and long-term impacts on children.”

National polling also shows bipartisan support for further child care support and changes to the system.

A poll conducted in the beginning of January on behalf of the national First Five Years Fund showed 80% of voters find the ability to find and afford child care as “either in a state of crisis or a major problem.”

The polling also showed 75% of participants believe child care funding should be increased or at least kept at current levels, with 75% of Republicans, 97% of Democrats, and 85% of independents giving that opinion.

A majority in all political parties polled said funding for child care “is an important and good use of tax dollars.”

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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According to the health care advocacy group Protect Our Care, more than 113,000 Ohioans are forgoing health care coverage on the federal Marketplace because of a congressional decision requested by the Trump administration to let tax credits expire on Affordable Care Act premiums.

An Ohio legislator, a fellow doctor, and a retired Ohioan all said drops in enrollment to the Affordable Care Act due to the loss of federal assistance could cause longterm issues in the state.

The Ohio drop is the fourth highest in the country, behind North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, a study from the group found. Nationally, 1.2 million people have left the federal program.

The expiration of those tax credits meant increases in the amount Americans are paying for the Affordable Care Act coverage, sometimes doubling the amount needed to pay for the coverage.

“For me, the way I look at it, I have to pay $1,000 a month for the privilege of spending $10,000 a year in deductibles, just to have catastrophic coverage,” said Ohioan John Francis, on a virtual briefing hosted by Protect Our Care.

Francis is a retiree who thought the ACA would be a good option as he waited to be eligible for Medicare at age 65. While he has chosen to continue on the insurance plan because he can afford it, he understands how quickly health coverage could become out of reach for Ohioans because of the cost.

He said seeing the cuts to Affordable Care Act tax credits, along with cuts to Medicaid that will amount to a more than $30 billion loss for Ohioans over the next decade, brings about a “moral question” about how America should be helping its own.

“If we’re going to allow people to work full-time and still be at the poverty level, then at least we should have the common decency to cover them with health care,” Francis said. “I don’t know how we can look at it any other way.”

Dr. Anita Somani, an OB/GYN and state representative said the tax credit expiration, along with things like work requirements being instituted into Medicaid, only negatively impact the health of the state and its residents.

“What we’re going to see is people delaying care,” she said.

In her practice, that would mean putting off pre-natal care, mammograms, Pap smears, and other cancer screenings. It could also mean pregnant women with high blood pressure could develop pre-eclampsia, which could lead to a stillbirth.

“Everything points to basically health care costs going up, people getting sicker, people dying,” Somani said.

For Dr. Christopher Brown, an Ohio nephrologist, the changes in federal health care assistance could very well mean issues with his patients getting the care they need for things like strokes and end-stage kidney disease.

“One of the things I really don’t like to see is people that come in with diseases that could have been prevented a long time ago,” Brown said.

The impacts of a lapse in coverage due to affordability could be significant, but Brown said the full ramifications can’t be quantified just yet.

Somani said extending the ACA subsidies and funding to help low-income households, kids who can stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26, and those looking to grow their families could only be helpful for Ohio.

Letting the tax credits expire and keeping the Medicaid cuts will add to an already tenuous health landscape in the state, according to Somani.

“For a (Republican) party that is supposed to be pro-family, these actions are the antithesis of pro-life,” she said.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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Supporters of a bill to require physicians to read state-mandated language regarding a drug used for medication abortion told an Ohio Senate committee the bill is not about punishment, but about accountability.

Those speaking to a Senate Health Committee on Wednesday about Senate Bill 309 represented anti-abortion groups and members of pregnancy resource centers. Pregnancy resource centers are often religiously-affiliated, and typically don’t discuss abortion, and they promote pregnancy above other options, some with the use of state funding.

The committee heard from women who argued that physicians should be held responsible for complications and severe side effects that may happen with mifepristone, one medication in a two-drug regimen used to conduct a medication abortion. Some even said the bill could be broadened to include accountability for physicians when it comes to other medications.

“When I have given medications, when I have been to a physician with my own children, informed consent is the ideal, but it is not happening, not consistently, in the way that it should be,” said Alyssa Thomas, the medical manager for Pregnancy Decision Health Centers.

S.B. 309 would require physicians to provide a scripted statement to patients indicating their legal ability to hold physicians, facilities, and even drug manufacturers liable for any complications that were not divulged before the drug was administered. The bill specifically addresses mifepristone, and no other medications.

Physicians and abortion rights advocates have said the bill duplicates informed consent that is already a part of their medical training, and could create mistrust between patients and doctors, while doing nothing to address medical safety.

Advocates also cite decades of medical studies that have shown the drug to be generally safe, and adverse effects to be statistically rare.

Supporters of the Ohio Senate bill predominantly point to one study that has been cited in other state legislation that could regulate abortion procedures, a study that abortion rights researchers say was not peer-reviewed, and notes emergency visits for any reason as part of “adverse effects” counts for mifepristone.

“What we’re really looking at – is this safe, what does the information show us,” said state Sen. Beth Liston, D-Dublin. “I’m seeing widely used medication with lots of safety data behind it.”

Katie Deland, of anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life stood by the study that they say shows more risk in the medication, saying it was “a well-backed study.”

Anti-abortion advocates said the data in the study proved mifepristone needs to be further regulated, and the Senate bill would create further protections for women. Those who spoke to the committee said they’ve seen increases in women expressing a lack of knowledge of the side effects, and shared individual stories of women they said have had severe symptoms from the abortion drug.

The Ohio Department of Health’s most recent yearly abortion report said there were a total of 21,829 induced abortions in the state in 2024. Of those, based on required post-abortion care reports for complications, 196 had complications, less than 1% of all abortions in the state.

Democrats on the committee pushed against the concept of the bill and what the bill would do in a state for which 57% of voters approved constitutional protections for reproductive rights, including abortion, in 2023.

“We all know that our Ohio Constitution says that we can’t be discriminating for reproductive health care and abortion care, and what I see, this is a specific bill discriminating for only that purpose,” Liston said.

Deland said the bill “does not ban abortion, it does not ban access to abortion, it does not restrict abortion.”

“It truly is just information,” Deland said.

Liston asked Deland if the legislature should be requiring physicians to read this statement for other, “objectively much higher-risk medications.”

“I think that’s something to look at,” Deland said. “I think that’s probably where we are in America right now with this MAHA movement. Both sides of the aisle, you’re looking at Big Pharma, what is going on, what are we ingesting, what don’t we know?”

“MAHA” refers to “Make America Healthy Again,” a Trump administration movement to overhaul health standards, led by Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Democratic committee member Sen. Catherine Ingram, of Cincinnati, pushed further for supporters to talk about the bill’s lack of language when it comes to information about the procedure. She sees the mandated language to be read by physicians as just a legal liability statement.

“My concern is not that we don’t want them to have this information, we absolutely do, but I also do believe people … can make those choices for themselves, and they should be informed,” Ingram said. “This bill, and the language … does not do what needs to be done.”

As a physician herself, Liston said she struggles to accept a “pre-prepared state statement as being informed consent” rather than an individualized conversation between patient and doctor.

“I really struggle with the lack of any ability to make medical judgments or decision-making in this bill,” Liston said.

The bill has a likely chance of being passed through the majority Republican committee and the supermajority Republican General Assembly, which has passed similar legislation and leaned toward anti-abortion regulations in the past, despite the constitutional amendment. Among other currently active legislation lead by Republicans is a bill seeking to create “personhood” for fetuses through the U.S. Constitution, that would bypass the state constitution’s language.

Republican Senate Health Committee member Sen. Kristina Roegner thanked the supporters of the bill for “fighting for life.”

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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Republican Ohio lawmakers plan to formally pledge their support for the Trump administration dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a resolution this week.

Resolutions are planned in both chambers of the General Assembly that urge Congress to dissolve the federal department, as President Donald Trump has promised to do since the beginning of his second term.

The language of the Ohio resolution states that education “is not a power delegated to the federal government and has historically been governed by states and local communities accountable to families.” It goes on to say that under federal involvement, academic achievement has “stagnated or declined.”

“Decades of increased federal spending and regulation have not improved outcomes for students, but have imposed burdens on states and their schools,” according to the draft resolution.

Republican state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, said the measure will be introduced as part of a national movement that he said is needed to help federal leaders get the ball rolling.

“I think that the federal government and our federal partners need state support to be able to push this concept,” Thomas said. “So, I see the impact essentially being a sign-off of yes, Ohio agrees this should be done.”

The resolution’s language is nearly identical to model language provided by the America First Policy Institute, a national right-wing non-profit policy organization. The deputy director of the group’s Ohio chapter is Emily Moreno, daughter of Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno.

The institute called the federal education agency a “failed experiment” in background included with the model language.

“(The department) has not promoted student achievement, improved education for disadvantaged students, nor helped expand educational opportunity,” the group stated.

The department “has used federal funding to coerce states into complying with controversial social policies that should be reserved to local decision-makers,” the institute added.

In the resolution, Ohio would create a task force to create and publish a “comprehensive plan to assume full responsibility for education programs” currently under the U.S. Department of Education purview.

That comprehensive plan is set to include any statutory changes required to “assume administrative control over federal education programs,” and the identification of federal education mandates Ohio would “decline to administer.”

The one clause from the model language state legislators didn’t include in the draft resolution promised a state report using metrics from the plan to “measure student outcomes, fiscal efficiency and regulatory burdens.” Under the model language, the report would “allow the public to compare outcomes under new state educational leadership relative to the prior period of federal education control.”

Through conversations with members of public schools and some teachers, Thomas said he’s found the concept of trying to bring education funding “more local” has “broad public support.”

“When I ask (schools) how can we help you cut costs, each school brings up all the regulations and the mandates and different things,” Thomas said. “This, to me, is another good example of something I’ve wanted, which is having more flexibility to remove a lot of those types of (federal requirements).”

State leaders have already shown support for the dismantling of the federal department, with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine attending an event where Trump signed an executive order to begin eliminating the department.

In a world without the U.S. Department of Education, Thomas sees the state moving to more of a block grant-type process, with the middleman out of the way. The federal money, which makes up about 10% of education funding in Ohio, would still come, but the state would have more control over what to do with it, he said.

“I’m sure a lot of folks think you get rid of the Department of Education and that gets rid of all the money,” Thomas said. “That’s not been what the administration has been saying, that’s not what this resolution is supporting.”

Teachers unions in Ohio and nationwide have stood staunchly against the effort, worrying about the loss of federal protections and other necessary services from the move.

“Dismantling (the department) risks cutting or destabilizing Title I and special education supports, weakens civil rights protections, and shifts costs onto local communities through higher levies or painful cuts to services,” said Jeff Wensing, president of the Ohio Education Association, in a statement.

The union leader said the consequences of the agency’s elimination would be “immediate and profound,” with less accountability for public funds and increasing inequality.

“Educators, parents, and families know that our students need more opportunities to succeed, not less,” Wensing said. “We need to strengthen our public schools where 90% of students – and 95% of students with disabilities – learn.”

Thomas doesn’t see the elimination of the federal department of education affecting the school funding formula in the state, even with a change in federal funding model.

“I don’t think that changes dramatically with a federal Department of Education-less world,” Thomas said. “I think it’s more so the policy side that changes dramatically.”

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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A Democratic candidate for Ohio Attorney General is receiving backlash after making comments about killing President Donald Trump through legal conviction and “capital punishment.”

Elliot Forhan is a former state representative who is set to appear on the Democratic primary ballot for Attorney General against John Kulewicz in May. Kulewicz is a longtime member of the Columbus-based law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease.

Forhan started a firestorm on social media Tuesday after saying he planned to “kill Donald Trump.”

“I want to tell you what I mean when I say I am going to kill Donald Trump,” Forhan said in a video posted to his Facebook page. “I mean I’m going to obtain a conviction, rendered by a jury of his peers, at a standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, based on evidence presented at a trial, conducted in accordance with the requirements of due process, resulting in a sentence, duly executed, of capital punishment.”

In a statement posted on social media, Kulewicz condemned Forhan’s comments.

“The comments today from my potential primary opponent are disgraceful,” Kulewicz said. “The AG is the chief law officer of our state, a serious responsibility, not a political game. The AG must take the law and judicial process seriously.”

Forhan did not walk back his statements when asked about them on Wednesday.

“If Donald Trump tries again to end American democracy, then as Ohio Attorney General, I will hold him accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Forhan told the Capital Journal.

In comments to Gongwer earlier on Wednesday, Forhan pointed to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to interrupt the 2020 presidential election certification process. Forhan told the outlet the president “did not face justice for that.”

Charges in the election interference case against Trump were dismissed at the request of federal prosecutors because after Trump had been elected president a second time and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents hold constitutional immunity for official acts.

Republican members of the Ohio legislature, along with other Republican elected officials, rushed to social media to denounce the comments.

State Auditor Keith Faber, a Republican candidate for Attorney General, called on Democratic candidates and leaders to “call (Forhan) out for such conduct.” He also called for “political calm” in a video statement posted to X.

“Tamp down the rhetoric, let’s keep everybody safe,” Faber said. “Ultimately, if we keep inflaming tensions, somebody’s going to get hurt.”

Forhan didn’t respond to Faber’s comments about him, instead criticizing an opinion piece Faber wrote (and referenced in his video post) on ICE presence in Minnesota, where two people have been killed by federal agents amid protests.

“Mr. Faber is telling Ohioans that, if elected, he will let Trump get away with murder,” Forhan said. “Ohio voters should take Mr. Faber at his word.”

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou posted a statement to X saying he was shown an “outrageous and extreme post,” referencing the Forhan video, one which he called “unhinged rhetoric.”

Some social media comments on the Republican statements called for Forhan’s arrest. He told the Capital Journal he feels he was within his rights to make such statements.

“I broke no law,” Forhan said. “The core of the protections of the First Amendment is political speech.”

The former representative said he’s grateful to have received support from Democrats in Ohio on Tuesday and Wednesday.

When asked for comment on Forhan and the social media posts, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde simply said, “there’s no place for political violence of any kind.”

Forhan had his share of controversy as a state representative and after losing his bid for reelection, leading to an ongoing defamation suit he filed against the current Ohio Attorney General, along with former and current lawmakers.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

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The youngest Ohioans are in need of mental health care, studies show, and barriers to care extend to most counties in the state, along with public and private insurance holders alike.

Legislators passed Ohio House Bill 7 in 2025, requiring the Ohio Department of Medicaid to begin recognizing mental health needs and services for infants and young children.

The bill also required reimbursement for mental health and family therapy services for that age group.

That may add needed help to a field of service that experts say struggles to keep up provider numbers, access, and data, despite the importance of the services for younger Ohioans.

“Children’s mental health is foundational to health development because it affects how kids learn, build relationships, regulate emotions/behavior, and respond to stress,” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio.

If those needs go untreated or undiagnosed, they can interrupt school attendance, impact family stability and peer relationships, and increase the risk of “crisis-level needs” later in life, the alliance told the Capital Journal.

Data from the Ohio Department of Health showed 250 deaths by suicide in 2023 for Ohioans aged 10 to 24.

Between 2020 and 2023, the state saw 96 suicide deaths in Ohioans between ages 10 to 14, and 927 deaths by suicide for individuals between the ages of 15 and 24.

Data provided by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio showed more than 5,600 children in Ohio went to an emergency department for a suspected suicide attempt in 2024.

The alliance cited Ohio-specific data that showed about 20% of the state’s middle school students reported their mental health as “not good” most or all of the time, while 35% of Ohio high school students reported “persistent” sadness or hopelessness.

While the state has invested in OhioRISE, a youth managed care program, and other pediatric mental health programs, advocates say gaps remain, even when insurance exists for such care.

“Families in Ohio face multiple barriers, including workforce shortages, long wait times for child-specialized providers, affordability issues, and geographic disparities, particularly in rural communities,” the alliance said in a statement to the Capital Journal.

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio found in a 2025 study that even families with private insurance, also called commercial insurance, had trouble finding treatment for their children.

They had more difficulty than those on Medicaid, though there was still a higher percentage of children on Medicaid who were not receiving needed care, according to the study.

In 2023, 17% of children and youth aged 3 to 17 on Medicaid needed mental health treatment, compared to 12% of children and youth with commercial insurance, the institute found.

Overall between 2022 and 2023, 38% of Ohio children needing mental health treatment found is “somewhat or very difficult to access treatment.”

The study from the policy institute spotlighted a different issue as well, a shortage of mental health professionals in most of Ohio.

As of July of last year, 75 of the state’s 88 counties were considered “mental health professional shortage areas.”

“There is a critical shortage of providers who treat young children, especially infant and early childhood mental health professionals,” the study found.

This creates a general issue, but creates even more issues for Ohioans who are trying to access specialized care for “complex behavioral health needs” or for those in low-income families, according to NAMI-Ohio.

Data is still a problem when it comes to mental health for young children, something the Health Policy Institute of Ohio said is important for policymakers when driving lawmaking decisions regarding the services and access that young children can have.

“Critical provider shortages, high cost-sharing and gaps in insurance coverage are among the barriers to accessing care,” the health institute’s policy brief stated.

“At the same time, Ohio lacks comprehensive data to demonstrate system capacity needs across the state.”

The state should have more information to work in the next few years, because of a provision in last year’s Ohio House Bill 7.

In it, the state department of Medicaid is required to submit a report to the General Assembly by June 30, 2027, which will include how many families and children received mental health services through the public insurance, what type of service they received, and the “outcome metrics” for those served.

Advocates welcome further data to get a comprehensive picture of the care used and needed by the state’s children.

Along with that accurate data, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio and the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio both say longterm financial and systemic support means the most in terms of making change.

“Sustained investment and coordinated systems are essential, so children receive help
before needs escalate,” the alliance said.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

The post Youth mental health barriers still prevalent in Ohio, studies show appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

During a recent U.S. Senate committee hearing, Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted spoke against the abortion pill, a target of the Trump administration as well as legislation at the Ohio Statehouse.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing on “protecting women against dangerous abortion drugs,” in which the attorney general for Louisiana and other speakers spoke in favor of further regulations and FDA scrutiny for the abortion pill mifepristone.

It comes amid a re-review of the drug requested by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., back in September 2025.

The chair of the committee, Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, specifically said the hearing was convened to hear testimony on “dangerous chemicals abortion drugs,” despite the fact that decades of research and some testimony at the same hearing have shown mifepristone to be medically safe and severe complications to be rare.

“Scientifically and morally, there is no difference in the value of a child, whether she is in her mother’s arms or she is in her mother’s womb,” Cassidy said during the hearing.

Husted sits on the committee and participated in the hearing on mifepristone.

He gave two examples in which men are accused of forcing women to take medication abortion without their knowledge or against their will as argument against the drug. He said requiring an in-person visit before dispensing the drug “would stop this.”

Husted also pointed to his own adoption story, in which he said his mother could have chosen abortion.

“Thankfully for me, she didn’t,” Husted said.

An OB/GYN and fellow for Physicians for Reproductive Health, Dr. Nisha Verma, pointed to more than 100 “high quality, peer-reviewed studies” that prove mifepristone’s safety and effectiveness, surpassing the fewer than 10 studies suggesting that the drug is not safe.

One study that is often cited by anti-abortion Republicans was a “policy paper that was self-published,” Verma told the committee, and included “routine care” as serious adverse events.

She said the science “is more than settled” on the safety of the abortion method, “which really does beg the question of what are we doing here today.”

“And it may be that we are here today because people in this room feel uncomfortable with abortion, and that’s okay, and we can talk about that,” Verma said. “But we should not pretend that this is an issue of the science.”

The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists has said the complication or death risk from an abortion procedure “is less than the same risk from common procedures like wisdom tooth removal, cancer-screening colonoscopy, and plastic surgery.”

Advocates in Ohio further insisted on the safety of the treatment, and said in-person requirements would create an accessibility problem for health care.

“Telehealth and mail-delivery options for medication abortion are particularly crucial for patients living in rural areas, patients with child care or other caretaking responsibilities, or patients with transportation challenges,” said Erica Wilson-Domer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.

On Husted’s examples of men forcing mifepristone on unknowing or unwilling women, Wilson-Domer said those “are criminal acts, not a result of the drug’s accessibility.”

“The isolated anecdotes that Sen. Husted bases his argument on should not be used to justify restricting this extremely safe and effective medication,” Wilson-Domer said in a statement.

The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000, and has since updated its regulation of the drug to allow telemedicine methods.

What remains in place for the drug is a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, an FDA drug safety program used for several medications to verify distributors of the drug are properly authorized to do so and “ensure the benefits of the medication outweigh its risks,” according to the FDA’s website on the programs.

Ohio’s General Assembly is considering its own moves connected to medication abortion, with Republican-led legislation active in committees.

This includes bills such as Ohio House Bill 324, a general drug regulation bill that would require in-person prescription and ban telehealth options for drugs with severe adverse effects occurring in more than 5% of patients.

Mifepristone came up during hearings for the bill, because abortion advocates argued non-peer-reviewed studies like the one mentioned in the U.S. Senate hearing could be reported to the Ohio Department of Health as reasoning to categorize the medication abortion drug as one in need of in-person requirements.

Anti-abortion groups claimed the bill would provide “necessary safeguards” for mifepristone.

Other bills still up for consideration include Ohio House Bill 370, which would bring back the concept of “fetal personhood” to effectively ban abortion at conception; and Ohio House Bill 347, which would force patients to wait 24 hours before having an abortion, potentially returning to law a requirement paused by an Ohio court.

Ohio Senate Bill 309 would require prescribers of mifepristone to inform patients that they can sue the physician, the health care facilities, and others should complications arise from the drugs.

Physicians and abortion rights advocates have said not only does the law duplicate informed consent requirements already included in their medical training, but it could bring about mistrust between doctors and patients.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

The post Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted speaks against abortion pill during Senate hearing appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

The child care sector in Ohio and nationwide is furiously pushing for federal leaders to walk back funding freezes for some states, and boost support in the next congressional budget for every state.

More than three dozen child care organizations around the country signed on to a letter urging the federal government to continue funding child care resources like the Child Care Development Block Grant, and bring back funding that was taken from certain states as fraud allegations in Minnesota circulated.

Ohio’s early childhood advocacy group Groundwork Ohio was one of the groups who signed on.

In the letter, the organizations ask the federal Administration for Children and Families to disburse the funding “without further disruption,” and for Congress to “protect and prioritize child care investments” as they continue to debate the next appropriations bill.

The letter said fraud “at any level is unacceptable and takes valuable child care away from eligible families,” and any funding should be used “wisely and as intended.”

“Simultaneously, it is essential that the strong oversight and internal controls already in place to govern these resources are ensuring the funding is being used properly, and that it continues to reach hard-working, eligible families,” according to the letter.

The Minnesota fraud allegations, first made by a right-wing social media influencer, were parroted by the Trump administration, to the point that the administration froze $10 billion in federal child care funds to select states: Minnesota, California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York.

The move caused leaders in other states, including Ohio, to make statements defending their child care systems, the audits and oversight that happen in their systems, and the need for the federal funding to sustain them.

Gov. Mike DeWine joined with Ohio Department of Children and Youth Director Kara Wente to lay out the verification processes used in the state, and fraud investigation methods that can be used, should any legitimate information come to light.

State data showed nearly 20,000 inspections of licensed child care providers in fiscal year 2025.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the funding freeze to the five states on Jan. 9 as a lawsuit continues, but advocates are still nervous about the future of child care funding.

The fraud allegations and funding freeze come as the child care sector in Ohio and nationwide is still strapped with high demand and high worker turnover, combined with low wages and a lack of access in many areas of the country.

Funding freezes related to fraud are just the latest in a heap of financial issues created on the federal level, from Jan. 2025’s fund-freezing executive orders, to congressional Medicaid cuts, and the impact the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history had on Head Start programs and SNAP benefits.

“Any delays in funding would be catastrophic to a sector already in crisis,” said Ali Smith, of Policy Matters Ohio, in a research brief on the situation.

National groups agreed in a Jan. 13 press briefing that the unpredictability and uncertainty of the sector is already causing problems that will ripple out for years to come, and continuing the losses will only further challenge a system in the country that parents rely on to stay in the workforce, and help families thrive.

“Shutting down federal social services and income assistance funding to selected states will hurt babies, and not fraudsters,” said Melissa Boteach, chief policy officer for Zero to Three, a national non-profit early childhood advocacy group.

Phil Fisher, director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood said the most recent of the annual national surveys the center conducts shows record rates of hardship for those already struggling to afford what they need.

The center’s RAPID Survey Project was started in April 2020 to study the impacts of policy and programs on child care and early childhood education.

Fisher said in Oct. 2025, the research showed the highest rates of “material hardship,” with 60% of families saying they couldn’t afford at least one of their basic needs, which include utilities, food, health care, housing, and child care.

“At present, we’re actually seeing rates that are considerably higher than we ever saw during the pandemic, with more than half of all families consistently reporting that they can’t pay for things,” Fisher said.

As affordability continues to be a problem in America, the child care funding challenges will continue to impact family decisions on what they can and can’t pay for, according to Fisher.

“And yet, we know that policy, from what we saw during the pandemic, can take a big bite out of these issues if we show the self-discipline to really make sure that things happen,” Fisher said.

At the local level, Smith and Policy Matters Ohio argue that the child care crisis could be helped by moving to an enrollment-based payment system, rather than the attendance-based reimbursement that’s currently in place for Ohio’s Publicly Funded Child Care.

The Administration for Children and Families in 2024 pledged to implement a nationwide payment requirement that would be prospective (pre-paid) and enrollment-based. The Ohio General Assembly put $89 million into the state operating budget to implement the federal rules, but that implementation hasn’t happened yet.

Now, the Trump administration has pushed back the deadline to make those changes into 2028.

Since pushing back the deadline, the federal agency has also introduced a new rule that would rescind that requirement, and maintain the attendance-based rules. Public comment on the federal proposal lasts until Feb. 4.

Smith argued taking away the future enrollment-based payments “will continue the crisis in the child care sector” by maintaining financial instability for providers.

This story originally appeared at ohiocapitaljournal.com.

The post Child care sector in Ohio continues push to save, and boost, funding appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.