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Friday, August 06, 2010

Ind. Law - "Indiana seeks to grow health plan once thought doomed"

As I read Ken Kusmer's AP story today, I recalled the great opinion column May 30th, 2010 by Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal, which the ILB headed "But I'm convinced that Daniels could make this health care law work for Indiana - even if he hates doing it every step of the way." The column ended:

Daniels has more than two years before he leaves office. It will be interesting to see whether he uses it to put Indiana's next governor in a better position to deal with the upcoming health care changes or just leaves the situation untouched for the next leader to sort out.
Kusmer's long story today may indicate the answer. It begins:
Indiana wants to expand its innovative health plan for low-income adults despite Gov. Mitch Daniels' statements that Medicaid expansion under the federal health care overhaul would kill the state program.

Anne Murphy, secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, sent a letter to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services saying the Healthy Indiana Plan “provides the natural vehicle to provide coverage to Hoosiers that will become Medicaid eligible” in 2014 under the expansion of the state-federal health care plan for the needy.

Murphy's May 17 letter to CMS Director Cindy Mann, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said Indiana invested more than $27 million in creating HIP.

“Common sense dictates that we take advantage of that investment and find a way to work with CMS to expand HIP,” Murphy wrote.

The letter sharply contrasts with Daniels' statements about HIP following passage of the federal health care overhaul in March. The governor, an outspoken critic of the overhaul, froze some enrollment in HIP and ordered Murphy to begin planning a phaseout “of a program whose days are numbered.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 6, 2010 10:23 AM
Posted to Indiana Government