Mitch Roob is taking his second turn leading the Family and Social Services Administration, which has the single largest budget due to its federal funding. Previously, he led the agency under former Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Hoosiers getting insurance under the Healthy Indiana Plan would need to log at least 20 work or volunteer hours a week with the state, a move that supporters hope will curb the program’s enrollment numbers.
Gov. Mike Braun’s new initiative borrows from Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan, which Kennedy, the U.S. health secretary, borrowed from President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Senate fiscal leaders presented a conservative state budget plan Thursday morning that drops universal school choice and extraneous spending.
Under Senate Bill 2, those enrolled in the Healthy Indiana Plan will need to either work or volunteer for 20 hours each week, with several exceptions for caregivers, disabled beneficiaries and more.
At least 14 states already cover the cost of GLP-1 medications for obesity treatment for patients on Medicaid. Indiana is not one of them.
The Trump administration is considering cuts or changes to spending on Medicaid, education and other programs that could impact the state budget.
From fiscal years 2023 to 2024, the state’s Medicaid burden grew by 53.7%, from $2.6 billion to $4.1 billion.
The plan means cuts at the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In Tuesday’s committee hearing, conservative lawmakers defended the plan to add red tape and bureaucracy to the program against Hoosiers who were worried they’d lose their health coverage.
Health policy nonprofit KFF estimates Indiana could miss out on billions of dollars in funding if the federal government enacts a per-capita cap to reduce spending on Medicaid.
President Donald Trump, too, made his position on Medicaid clear: “We’re not going to touch it.”
Senate Republicans unanimously greenlit a bill imposing certain provisions to the Healthy Indiana Plan, including adding a cap to the program—meaning hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers could lose coverage.
Senate Bill 2 would introduce restrictions on the Healthy Indiana Plan, a Medicaid program that pays for the health care needs of more than 750,000 Hoosiers.
Indiana House lawmakers on Tuesday passed several pieces of legislation that would curb some of the Medicaid savings measures advanced by the previous gubernatorial administration.
The orders largely direct state agencies to audit current programs and coverage as a means to find health care savings.
The Indiana Family and Social Service Administration’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning estimates that 5% to 20% of eligible members would be prescribed weight-loss medications.
Growing costs, especially for Medicaid, could make it more difficult for Republican leadership to achieve a key goal: spending less than the state takes in.
The state’s Medicaid program continues to increase in cost at a rate faster than state’s revenue growth. It hit a tipping point last year when lawmakers learned about a $985 million shortfall in the state’s Medicaid budget.
A year the Holcomb administration revealed a shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program of nearly $1 billion, lawmakers will start working in January to piece together legislation that at least in part deals with the second-largest and fastest-growing item in the state budget.
