This is good not just for the several hundred thousand people who will get coverage, but good for me too because I worry what happens if I get laid off and can’t afford COBRA. If that happens and I can’t find a job with health care at least i can get on HIP 2.0 (which is what they are calling medicaid in this state). When I was unemployed before I applied for HIP but there was a waiting list. I didn’t get accepted until I had found a job with insurance and didn’t need it. But this is nice as a social safety net.
Thanks for posting this. It might really help a client of mine who hasn’t been able to get medical care that she needs.
Indiana? Reddest of the Red (without actually being Texas), actually using ACA?
I assume the Governor is about to be executed for High Treason to the GOP.
Yes, as a child I was stuck in that hellhole.
For giggles: Look up Seymour IN - birthplace of John Mellencamp. When he sings about being born in a small town, he isn’t kiddin…
I and my spouse have been on the Indiana HIP program for… oh, 6 or 7 years now? (Yes, we was fortunate to get on it early and avoid the waiting lists). It’s not perfect medical access but my spouse has been able to get his maintenance medications, regular check ups, and a few necessary “procedures” without bankrupting us. Better yet, no overnight hospital stays for him, or even ER visits.
I just got my rebate from last year for doing all my required “preventive maintenance”, which is treated as a credit towards my monthly premiums. I won’t have to pay on my policy until summer. (Spouse is more costly and doesn’t get a rebate, but since our premiums are based on a percentage of our gross income and scales as our income goes up and down it’s still affordable for us).
So far I’ve been a satisfied customer. I’ve been urging people to at least get on the waiting list for years now. I’m glad they can expand the program further.
Or maybe for being a Soviet sympathizer… he is starting a state run news agency. It is being called “Pravda on the Plains” in the press (even though Indiana isn’t a Plains State).
I actually like the guy, but what the hell was he thinking here?
And BTW… all of Indiana isn’t a Hell Hole… Seymour though… well…
But the Republican governor doing it still demands that Obamacare be repealed, amirite?
No.
Sure, Pence and, before him, Daniels (the governor the program started under) wouldn’t be upset if Obama care was repealed, but both of them asked not so much for a repeal but be allowed to continue/expand HIP as a plan that had been demonstrated as workable rather than be forced into the ACA mold. Basically “hey, we’ve already have a program that’s working, can we continue that instead of using your idea?”
They’ve also tried to get the Feds to allow HIP to continue alongside the ACA, but the Feds were actively trying to shut down HIP for a couple years because it didn’t conform exactly to the ACA.
Actually, my premiums under HIP are significantly less than they would be under ACA, which is why I stuck with it when given the option to switch. It’s working for us. I have some aggravations with it, but at least we have access to healthcare when we need it.
In a nutshell - the Indiana governor doesn’t really care if ACA continues or is repealed, or what other states are doing, what he’s interested in is continuing/expanding a program already in place that has been shown to be effective for citizens of the state.
HIP was in place before Obama was elected and ACA was passed. Indiana was trying to get the uninsured covered before the Feds starting acting on the problem.
I’ve never been to Seymour, but I wouldn’t call it a small town. There are almost 20k people there. Small towns have 1k people and 1 stoplight. I know of a nearby small town that doesn’t even have a grocery store.
Also Indiana seems to be moving leftward. At least it did in 08 and 12. But who knows. Bloomington is still the best town in this state, and always will be. Indy has more to do, but Bloomington has a better culture. It is like Indiana’s version of San Francisco.
Yeah, I’ve been reading some stuff about conservatives being pissed at him for this.
For shits and giggles, I decided to crunch some numbers. Indiana has about 2% of the US’s population.
The medicaid expansion from 2014-2022 will cost about $931 billion in federal dollars, about $73 billion in state dollars. Divided by 50 that gives 18.62 and 1.46 respectively.
The cost to the state to expand medicaid is about 1.6 billion so that seems to add up.
If 350,000 people get covered that is about 58k to cover someone for 9 years. Assuming all my math is correct. That isn’t bad I guess.
Pence still calls for the repeal of hte ACA. I have no idea how he rectifies this.
I lived in Columbus (20 miles N. of Seymour) when IT had a pop. of 20,000. Seymour was a wide spot on the road.
I see IN still hasn’t actually created an ACA exchange, so Hoosiers who want an ACA plan have to go through the Federal site.
Which the GOP is arguing (before SCOTUS) that they shouldn’t be allowed to - they argue that, since the red states have sandbagged ACA by NOT establishing exchanges, red state residents should not be allowed to use the Federal site (the only one available to them).
I stand by my “hellhole” assessment.
p.s. I HAVE seen Seymour - while Mr. Mellencamp still lived there (c 1965).
He seems to now live at a reservoir just outside Bloomington.
Remember Little Pink Houses? As a promo, a small house in Bloomington was purchased and painted pink - as a prize.
Bloomington, before IU and after, was known for limestone quarries. When you dig big holes in the planet, sometimes unpleasant gasses leak out.
Under little pink houses…
Anybody know what happened to that house?
Bloomington has a great culture, and Indianapolis is a fairly large city (about the 12th largest in the US) with some decent things to do. Indiana isn’t perfect, but compared to some other states that lack those traits it could be worse. At least we aren’t Mississippi.
However if I didn’t have family here I would’ve left for northern California by now.
I believe Mellencamp lives on the banks of lake Monroe.
I have no idea how Pence reconciles his views. He expanded HIP but opposes the ACA. If the subsidies are cut that’ll probably lead to health insurance loss for many hundreds of thousands here.
I once lived in Bloomington.
My degrees are from Purdue.
My first career-type job was in Naptown.
But you’re right - it is better than MS.
For my 30th birthday, I gave myself a one-way ticket to SF.
Bloomington’s great. Diverse, liberal, educated, good restaurants, culture, good local coffee shops. It’s not a huge city (I’d hate a real city, I think), but it’s great for its size and definitely a haven in Indiana. I say that as someone who grew up in Shoals, Indiana, home of the Jug Rock and not one but TWO gypsum plants. Shoals, Indiana - Wikipedia Read and envy!
Pence just decided not to have a state-run paper after all. Mellencamp still lives on the lake. His sons (at least one, anyway) gets occasional publicity for being a punk and beating people up.
I lived in Bloomington, I now live in Indianapolis. Bloomington had a more cozy feel than Indy, in Indy I feel more disconnected from my city than I did in B-town (its like living in a hotel where you know most of it is stuff you haven’t seen before vs living in a home where you know and feel comfortable in all the rooms). Plus even though there is more to do in Indy, about 80%+ of it is also available in Bloomington. I would move back if I could, but my job requires me to live in Indy.