I was reading the September 16, 2013, minutes (pdf) of the General Assembly’s Health Finance Commission (because isn’t that what everyone does when they wake up in the morning?) and saw discussion of the Healthy Indiana Plan as it relates to the federal Medicaid expansion.
I seem to be missing something. The minutes suggest that Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) eligibility is being restricted to facilitate access to the health care exchange subsidies. My understanding was that those subsidies did not kick in until a person exceeded the Medicaid expansion threshold (133% of the poverty line or thereabouts). But, according to the minutes, access to HIP is being reduced from the current level down to 100% of the poverty line. This means that 10,500 currently eligible for HIP will no longer be eligible.
The other interesting piece of information about HIP is that it appears to be capped at 45,000 participants; and the reason for that limit has to do with the Budget Agency’s interpretation of the funding mechanism from the cigarette tax. Commission members seemed to believe that there was a surplus of cigarette tax funds and asked FSSA Secretary Minott to follow up on that.
Bottom line? Especially since we are NOT doing the Medicaid expansion and a state healthcare exchange, both largely funded with Federal money, even FEWER Hoosiers will have access to decent healthcare. I know someone who got hit with this, she is retired, and is having to think about un-retiring just to survive.
Stupid, stupid, stupid Indiana.
But why is it that the mills of God must grind so slowly?
No, but sometimes I read such satisfying material like “Secrets of the Oracle Database’. Once again Indiana lives up to their name my buddy from NY gives us, “Hicks in the Sticks!”.
I just received a “constituent survey” from Rep. Hal Slager, but the print quality suggests that it was produced by the Indiana Republican Party. In the last “survey” question, he says that the 427,000 Hoosiers who are earning up to 138% above the poverty level would cost $2 billion over the next seven years. He asked if constituents would support that. It leaves out the fact that Indiana would receive between $14.3 and $26.4 billion in return from the Federal Government.
It’s interesting that the Republicans feel so threatened and have so little facts to support their case that they feel that they have to twist data. Has anyone else received this “survey”?
We can all visit the House Republicans website (http://www.in.gov/legislative/house_republicans/) and pull up their surveys.
For fun, here’s three – overlap in all three, but they’re not all the same. For instance, Frizzell doesn’t ask about same-sex marriage, but Burton and Slager do.
http://www.in.gov/surveytool/public/survey.php?name=h15_L14_SLAGER
http://www.in.gov/surveytool/public/survey.php?name=h58_L14_Burton_1
http://www.in.gov/surveytool/public/survey.php?name=h93_L14_Frizzell
Sure looks like there is a Common Core of identical questions that is drawn upon. (And, yes, I suspect the Democrats, all six of them, do the same.)
Joe, thanks for your work. I checked these links, so when Slager refuses to take responsibility for his “$2 billion over the next seven years” contention, he can’t point to the Party. It’s his baby, for the most part, and he had the option to delete it from the list. Again, thanks!