Gov. announces Healthy Indiana Plan

Gov. Mike Pence announced Tuesday the Healthy Indiana Plan would be extended through Dec. 31, 2014.

The Healthy Indiana Plan covers uninsured, low-income adults, ages 19 to 64, who are ineligible for Medicaid. The plan provides an income-based personal health savings account with contributions made between the individual and the state valued at $1,100, a basic commercial package to cover medical costs that exceed $1,100, and free preventative services, according to Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s website.

Gov. Pence has been in negotiations with the United States Department of Health and Human Services since February 2013.

is trying to receive the necessary waivers to continue HIP, as the current waivers were due to expire at the end of 2013.

Indiana is one of 22 states not moving forward with the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion at this time, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy research group.

Pence is considering using the Healthy Indiana Plan as a vehicle for Medicaid
expansion to bring health care coverage to more Hoosiers in the future, according to the IFSSA website.

However, Pence has said any coverage of the expansion must begin with the Healthy Indiana Plan, according to the website.

“Securing a waiver to continue the Healthy Indiana Plan is a victory for Hoosiers enrolled in this innovative program and will ensure that Indiana remains at the forefront of consumer-driven healthcare in the United States,” Pence said in a press release.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded Indiana Family and Social Services waivers to three key provisions of the Medicaid program.

CMS granted these waivers on the condition that HIP be limited to adults whose income falls below 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines and that Indiana provide a “seamless transition of coverage” for those individuals currently enrolled in HIP who do not meet the new income restriction, according to a letter from CMS director Cindy Mann.

Currently, the income restriction is 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline, according to the IFSSA website.

“Those who no longer meet the requirements will be able to apply for tax credits and cost-saving reductions to cover increased deductibles and co-pays of plans bought in the federal marketplace,” IFSSA Secretary Debra Minott said. “They will be in as good of a situation, if not better.”

Minott said that enrollment will not be expressly capped, but it is limited by the funding that is available, and IFSSA hopes to enroll about 45,000 individuals.
The extension, rather than expansion, of the Healthy Indiana Plan will leave a gap in coverage for Hoosiers.

“To the 37,316 current Healthy Indiana Plan enrollees, today’s announcement comes as a relief. But what of the 10,000 enrollees the governor’s agreement kicks off HIP, or the nearly 53,000 left on waiting lists, or the more than 500,000 Hoosiers without access to health care?” said Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, in a press release. “To them, today’s announcement is nothing more than achieving the minimum.”

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