Indiana lawmakers consider Medicaid cuts Wednesday
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Hoosier Action held a Medicaid rally at the Statehouse Tuesday. Photo: Arika Herron/Axios
An effort to curb Indiana's growing Medicaid costs will be considered by lawmakers on Wednesday.
Why it matters: Medicaid, a joint program between the federal and state governments, provides health coverage for nearly 2 million low-income Hoosiers.
- It's also Indiana's fastest-growing expense and set to outpace K–12 education spending — which made up half the state budget until very recently — in the next five years.
Driving the news: The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to amend and vote out Senate Bill 2, a Medicaid reform bill, Wednesday afternoon.
- Much of the legislation is focused on the state's Medicaid expansion program, the Healthy Indiana Plan, which provides coverage for roughly 750,000 low-income Hoosiers ages 19–64 and has nearly doubled in size from pre-COVID to today.
- The bill institutes work requirements for HIP participants — with some exceptions for disabled people, those receiving unemployment benefits, volunteers and parents of young children.
- It also requires more frequent reviews of members' eligibility, seeking to weed out Hoosiers who may be receiving Medicaid benefits improperly.
Between the lines: Lawmakers want "right-size" HIP with work requirements and other policy changes that will force them off Medicaid.
- "We have to get Medicaid under control," said Sen. Ryan Mishler (R-Mishawaka), author of SB 2.
Hoosier Action organized a rally Tuesday to oppose the changes.
- Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, Medicaid organizer and policy director of the advocacy organization, said the House has improved SB 2 by removing the 500,000-person cap on the Healthy Indiana Plan, but she still expects more than 100,000 Hoosiers will lose coverage under the bill as written.
What they're saying: "When I hear about bills like SB 2, it feels like [lawmakers] don't care if people like me live or die," said Susan Brackney, a full-time freelance writer who relies on the Healthy Indiana Plan.
- Brackney has several chronic health issues that make more traditional employment difficult.
- "I think there's a lot of misconceptions about folks on this plan," she said.
What's next: No amendments had been filed for the bill when Axios last checked Tuesday evening, but Rep. Brad Barrett (R-Richmond), the bill's House sponsor, said last week he wants to fine-tune language to the work requirement exemptions and ease a prohibition on marketing Medicaid programs.