Ohio Gov. John Kasich is one of eight Republican governors who have so far said their state will participate in Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. But as the Huffington Post points out, Kasich stands apart in one respect: Of those Republican governors, he is so far the only one to explicitly tie his decision to the values of his religious faith.

While he remains opposed to Obamacare as a whole, the Ohio governor indicated his support for the Medicaid expansion in his annual State of the State remarks last week, pointing to the public health insurance program’s potential to help care for the most vulnerable residents in his state:

The Bible runs [Kasich's] life “not just on Sunday, but just about every day,” he said in his annual State of the State address Tuesday.

“And I’ve got to tell you, I can’t look at the disabled, I can’t look at the poor, I can’t look at the mentally ill, I can’t look at the addicted and think we ought to ignore them,” he told the audience of about 1,700 lawmakers, state officials and other guests. […]

“Put it in your family,” Kasich said. “Put somebody that is in your family who becomes the wayward child. And they come home one day, they can’t get a job. Put it on your doorstep, and you’ll understand how hard it is.”

Kasich was raised Catholic and worships regularly in an Anglican church. For more than 20 years, he has met every other Monday with a small group of men to study the Bible. And he has written a book about how the experience has helped him in his search for answers.

That’s a theme in keeping with a broader push that’s been made in the expansion’s favor. Earlier this year, religious and community leaders in Ohio held a rally at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, calling on their state to participate in the Medicaid expansion. And back in September, over 100 national, state, and local faith leaders released a statement employing Republican governors as a whole to accept the expansion. Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of the Catholic social justice group NETWORK, said in conjunction with the release that, “My strong support of Medicaid expansion comes out of my pro-life stance because it is the right and moral thing to do.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) wasn’t as explicitly religious as Kasich when he announced his own support for Medicaid expansion, but he did come close. As the Huffington Post noted, Scott said his mother, who passed away last year, taught him that “America’s greatness is largely because of how we value the weakest among us.”

Because the federal government will fund the first several years of the Medicaid expansion, reports have estimated that Ohio will actually enjoy $1.43 billion in net fiscal savings to its state budget over the next eight years if it participates. And failing to expand Medicaid would actually cost the state about $8 billion in additional health care costs, largely because a higher uninsured population would mean greater spending on uncompensated care.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) announced on Monday that he will expand his state’s Medicaid program to extend health coverage to an estimated 600,000 low-income Ohioans. The governor noted that accepting Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion will strengthen Ohio’s safety net for its poorest residents, allow state programs to focus their resources on providing care for the mentally ill, and ultimately save the state $13 million dollars over the next seven years.

Ohio is the fifth GOP-led state to indicate support for expanding the Medicaid program, joining Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and North Dakota. In a press conference to unveil his budget priorities for this legislative session, Kasich explained that although he “is not a supporter of Obamacare,” he recognizes that expanding Medicaid “makes great sense” for the people in his state:

We’re doing this for a variety of reasons. Number one, many of these people who are below the $14,000 in income — some of the poorest Ohioans — they get their primary care in an emergency room. Now that is not the best way to get people primary care. Not only is it not good for them, because it doesn’t allow them to get healthy, but secondly, it drives up the cost of everybody’s health care. [...]

If we were to reject extending Medicaid, I believe that we would create financial chaos, particularly across our rural hospitals…because they would no longer be able to get reimbursed for the care that they provide. It would create, in my judgement, a financial mess. In addition to this, many of you know that I have really wanted to work hard to restore the safety net for the mentally ill and the addicted. The fact is, extending Medicaid is going to significantly allow our local providers — of both mental health services and addictive services — with some space and some opportunity to begin to rebuild that safety net, so we don’t find as many of our mentally ill in our jails today because they receive no care. [...]

I am not a supporter of Obamacare. I don’t believe in the individual mandate…and I decided to move forward with the federal exchange rather than the state exchange, where I believe we would have lost control. But I believe this makes great sense for the state of Ohio.

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Kasich echoed the sentiments of the other GOP governors who have also agreed to expand Medicaid in their states. Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ), another vocal opponent of President Obama’s health care reform law, conceded last month that expanding the eligibility level for Arizona’s Medicaid program will “secure a federal revenue stream to cover the costs of the uninsured who already show up in our doctors’ offices and emergency rooms” and “protect rural and safety-net hospitals from being pushed to the brink.”

Nonetheless, other Republican leaders across the country are still refusing to accept Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, stubbornly resisting health care reform at the expense of their poorest residents. The ten states that have rejected the Medicaid expansion — some of which have the highest rates of uninsurance in the nation — are all led by GOP governors.

On top of slashing state funds for Ohio’s Medicaid program, Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) hasn’t yet committed to Obamacare’s optional Medicaid expansion — even though participating in the expansion would extend health coverage to an estimated 600,000 low-income Ohioans. But the state’s religious and community leaders are hoping the governor might be swayed by their moral argument for health care reform.

Religious and community leaders held a rally on Thursday to call on Kasich to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that Ohio’s poorest residents have access to the live-saving health care they need:

More than 1,000 rallied at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland on Thursday night to show their support for expanding Medicaid in Ohio.

The assembly brought together members of religious congregations, community groups and major health care providers to demonstrate community support for expanding Medicaid. [...]

“We believe that opening access to life-saving health insurance to 600,000 Ohioans through the Medicaid program is the right thing to do for Ohio’s people, for our economy and for our state’s fiscal health,” said the Rev. Tracey Lind, co-chairman of the GCC group from Trinity Cathedral which attended the assembly. The GCC includes more than 20,000 members of 40 churches, synagogues and mosques that are working for passage of Medicaid expansion.

In addition to faith leaders, the Ohio Hospital Association also voiced its support for Medicaid expansion on Thursday, explaining that extending public insurance coverage to low-income people will also help create jobs in the state’s critical health care sector. “Seven of Ohio’s top 12 employers are hospital systems,” Mike Abrams, the president and CEO of the association, said.

And, since the federal government will fund the first several years of the Medicaid expansion, reports have estimated that Ohio will actually result in $1.43 billion in net fiscal savings in the state budget over the next eight years — while failing to expand Medicaid would actually cost the state $8 billion in additional health care costs. “We think it’s a no-brainer,” said Rev. Tracey Lind Dean of Cleveland’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. “We believe that it’s going to help people in the state of Ohio be healthier and it’s going to be a revenue source for the state, and we know that with every health care dollar spent that there are more dollars generated in the economy.”

Faith leaders in other Republican-controlled states that have refused to expand Medicaid, like Texas, have also attempted to pressure lawmakers to embrace health care reform. But over a dozen GOP governors are still refusing to cooperate with Obamacare, even to extend health coverage to more of their state’s neediest residents.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has given recalcitrant Republican governors extra time to decide whether or not to implement Obamacare in their states, extending the deadline for submitting their plans for health insurance exchanges until December 14. But some lawmakers are already prepared to announce their intentions. This week, Republicans governors in Maine, Wisconsin, and Ohio officially turned down the opportunity to design their own state-wide health exchanges.

And The Hill reports that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is pleased with his home state’s decision to avoid setting up a health exchange, releasing a statement that praises Gov. John Kasich (R) for “resisting the federal takeover” of Ohio’s health care system:

BOEHNER: I’m proud of my governor, John Kasich, for taking a stand and resisting the federal takeover of healthcare in Ohio. By declining to implement a government-run ‘exchange’ and preserving Ohio’s ability to regulate health insurance on its own, Gov. Kasich is protecting Ohio families and small businesses from some of the steep costs and red tape created by ObamaCare.

In fact, states that choose not to set up a health exchange simply cede their control to the federal government, which will then step in and set up one for them. As The Hill points out, Kasich’s decision not to pursue his own exchange ensures that “the federal government will now have total control over all the functions of Ohio’s exchange, such as the number of plans that can participate and whether to impose requirements above and beyond those spelled out in the law.”

And regardless of the role the federal government will play in implementing state-wide exchanges, Obamacare is not a strain on families and small businesses. In reality, the health reform law represents a massive tax cut for the middle class. Studies have confirmed that Obamacare’s implementation is not causing business owners to drop their employees’ coverage, and the law may actually help reduce costs for small businesses.