Friday, October 30, 2020
This week, Indiana received approval to continue its successful alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion, the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), for 10 more years, allowing the state to continue to cover over half a million low-income Hoosiers.
Created by the General Assembly in 2007 under former Gov. Mitch Daniels, and expanded in 2015, HIP was the nation’s first consumer-driven health care program for Medicaid beneficiaries. It is a conservative alternative to traditional Medicaid that promotes personal responsibility and patient control over health care choices by requiring those above the poverty level to make reasonable personal contributions to receive assistance.
This plan also incentivizes individuals to participate in preventative screenings, which are free, and to stop smoking, which is rewarded by reducing copays. This cuts down the overall cost of health care down the road by catching medical problems early on.
The success of this plan so far has prompted the federal government to extend this program through 2030, marking it the first time the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved a state’s Medicaid waiver for a comprehensive health benefits program for a period of 10 years.
Under conservative leadership, Indiana has been able to empower hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers to take control of their health care, and now they will be able to continue doing so for the foreseeable future.
To learn more about HIP, visit in.gov/fssa/hip.
