Insurer to drop out of health care exchange
COLUMBUS (AP) — A Dayton-based insurance company says it will drop out of Ohio’s health care exchange for 2018.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Premier Health Plan’s announcement Thursday leaves 20 Ohio counties with no health insurer on the state exchange next year. Premier’s decision affects nine southwest Ohio counties. Anthem announced earlier this month it would not offer insurance on Ohio’s exchange.
Premier’s president says the company can’t plan and price affordable health insurance to sell on the exchange because of “uncertainty in Washington” and related volatility in the marketplace. Exchanges are a component of the Affordable Care Act that congressional Republicans are trying to repeal and replace.
An Ohio Department of Insurance spokesman says the state is trying to find replacement insurers for those counties.
Budget opens bachelor’s options at community colleges
COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s community colleges could request to offer bachelor’s degrees in certain circumstances under provisions of the state budget bill before Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sik).
The Springfield News-Sun reports the bill would allow the chancellor of higher education to approve applied bachelor’s degree programs at a community college if the school can demonstrate the degree would serve a workforce need or a growing long-term need. Unusual degree programs that demonstrate “a unique approach” also would be eligible.
Traditionally, bachelor’s degrees are only available at four-year colleges and universities.
Community colleges also could increase general and instructional fees by no more than $10 per credit hour under the legislation, as long as the increases funded academic support and programming, career services or need-based financial aid. Room and board could not increase.
Police revive same man from an overdose 20 times
DAYTON (AP) — An Ohio police officer says one man has been revived with the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone 20 times by police, but he still disagrees with a city councilman who asked if it’s possible for emergency crews to stop responding to drug overdose calls.
Dayton Police Major Brian Johns tells the Dayton Daily News law enforcement took an oath to protect life, comparing the situation to a first responder not doing CPR on an obese person because they have poor dietary habits.
Middletown City Council member Dan Picard said last week arresting people who overdose increases the burden on taxpayers and strains the court system.
Picard is standing by his comments, saying “we need to put a fear about overdosing in Middletown.”
Police investigating after body found in burned car
SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Police are continuing to investigate after a body was found in a burned car in a park in western Ohio.
Emergency crews called to a park in Springfield around 4 a.m. Thursday found an SUV on fire. The body was found in the back seat after firefighters extinguished the blaze.
It wasn’t known whether investigators believe the victim died before or during the fire.
Investigators said they couldn’t immediately determine the age, gender or identity of the victim. They said the license plates found on the SUV had expired last year and are registered to a different car.
The Clark County coroner and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation also are involved in the investigation.
Police ID body pulled from Lake Erie in 1989
LORAIN (AP) — Police in northern Ohio say a body that washed up on the Lake Erie shoreline in 1989 has been identified decades later as a man from suburban Detroit, and they’re trying to locate his relatives.
Lorain police say investigators couldn’t identify the body when it was found, but recent technological advances helped the FBI determine it was 36-year-old Terrence Patrick Brennan.
His body was found among rocks behind a shoreline property on April 3, 1989, wearing blue jeans, a shirt and one cowboy boot.
Lorain police say they don’t know why he might have been in Ohio. They’re hoping to get in touch with his family or anyone who might know them.
Missing wedding dress found through Facebook
DOVER (AP) — A bride traveling through northeast Ohio has found her missing wedding dress thanks to the help of social media.
WJW-TV reports Jennifer Contini and her fiancé, Steven Cunningham, were traveling from New York to Dover, Ohio when they lost the dress.
Contini says they had stopped during the trip, and she guesses she left the dress on top of the car as they drove away.
Contini posted about the dress on Facebook and the post went viral.
She says her friend’s friend saw the dress hanging on a fence at the end of a driveway. A Southampton couple had found the dress and hung it with the hope someone would claim it.
The couple is sending the dress to Dover, just in time for the wedding July 7.
