Ohio’s Democratic candidate for governor has made medical debt forgiveness a central part of her campaign to flip the Buckeye State in the November general elections this year. Dr. Amy Acton, a preventive medicine specialist and former state public health leader, has promised Ohioans that she will follow the lead of several other Democratic states in buying out medical debt should she be elected to the governorship against Republican challenger, billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. Acton served in multiple administrations as Ohio’s chief public health officer before resigning in June 2020 after clashing with the state legislature regarding her advice to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on COVID-era lockdowns. After her resignation, she served as DeWine’s health policy adviser in the governor’s office.
On the campaign trail, Acton has relied heavily on her health policy proposals, including the widely popular plank of medical debt relief, to sway voters who might otherwise be skeptical of her COVID-era policy recommendations.
Acton highlighted her plan to “end medical debt as governor” during a May 6 local news interview, telling the story of a family she met who had $300,000 of medical debt due to newborn twins needing to stay in the NICU before coming home.
