For those of you interested in the nitty gritty around pending Medicaid Section 1115 waiver proposals we have some more reading material for you. Last night was the deadline for submitting public comments to federal CMS on Indiana’s pending HIP 2.0 proposal.
It’s good news that Indiana is serious about accepting the federal funds and moving forward with Medicaid expansion. But still a few issues to be worked out in this one – like a harsh lockout provision for those who don’t make contributions into their health savings accounts (contributions which look a lot like premiums by the way), and a difficult choice for those below poverty – pay a premium that you likely can’t afford for richer benefits or pay cost-sharing that you probably can’t afford at the point of service and receive a skimpier benefits package. And Indiana continues the trend towards enormously complicated structures that may prove hard to implement on the ground.
In any event for those who are interested in the details, please read comments we submitted with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities here and/or a shorter comment letter which highlights key issues submitted by 14 national organizations. Special thanks to our colleagues at Center on Budget for doing much of the heavy lift on this one!
