THE ISSUE:The Healthy Indiana Plan.
OUR VIEW:Legislators and FSSA should review the plan in the next session. The idea is help as many Hoosiers as possible.
For more information: Call (877) GET-HIP-9.
In January, Indiana took what many believe to be an extraordinary step. It began offering health insurance to the working poor.
For the first time in state history, non-disabled residents ages 19 to 64, with incomes 200 percent below the federal poverty level and offered no employer-sponsored care, could get health insurance through the Healthy Indiana Plan. To date, more than 10,000 Hoosiers are enrolled.
That’s a good start. But Indiana can do better. Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Mitch Roob thinks so.
In particular, Roob encourages a legislative discussion concerning the definition of employer-offered health care. Some employers offer health-care benefits, but premiums are unaffordable for their employees.
“We need to decide what are we going to define as ‘employer-sponsored health care’. Is it any time the employer offers health coverage, regardless of perceived affordability? Because that’s the way it was written into the [law],” he said. “It’s a debate that needs to happen.”
The legislature funded HIP to include up to 130,000 Hoosiers. But more state residents have been excluded entry into the health-care program than have been enrolled. Among the most common reasons for denial are failure to provide more information to the state, having had health insurance within the past six months, having income that exceeds the cut off, and already having insurance.
Is the income requirement too restrictive?
That’s another discussion legislators and the FSSA should have. The idea is to help as many Hoosiers as possible.
Opinion
June 3, 2008
HIP can be better
- Opinion
-
- Love grows in garden Thanks to volunteers at the Community Garden near Ivy Tech, local community kitchens and residential centers get fresh, healthy vegetables for their patrons.
- June 19, 2013: Letters to the editor Let residents vote on wind farm issue As the wind farms, with all the controversy around them, approach the Greentown area, it makes one wonder what brought them here to begin with? With the number of people who live in the country, and with some of
-
House of Burgess: War on Christmas, summer edition
“Surrounded by sleigh bell-ringing Santa Claus impersonators, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a law protecting Christmas and other holiday celebrations in Texas public schools from legal challenges — but also stressed that freedom of religion is not the same thing as freedom from religion,” reported Will Weissert of the Associated Press on Friday.
-
DAVID CALL: Storm chasers must heed WX warnings
Meteorologists must remember why we chase storms.
- Open doors for women Federal law says no person, on the basis of sex, shall be excluded from any education program or activity receiving federal funding. And that's how it should be.
- June 18, 2013: Letters to the editor E.ON assurances are empty promises Since recently learning that my home is literally inside the footprint of the proposed Howard County Wildcat Wind Farm, I have been doing all I can to learn about the potential impacts the industrial wind turbines c
- MAUREEN HAYDEN: State offers new option for trying kids as adults Dual sentencing could help juvenile offenders.
- TOM LoBIANCO: Disparate Ind. pols agree ISTEP answers needed Lawmakers could seek study costs and fines from McGraw-Hill.
- June 17, 2013: Letters to the editor Notification laws wrongly waived Law once required people to notify neighbors through county officials if they wanted to change anything on their property. These laws were waived without our knowledge regarding turbines. Most here didn't know they we
- Who's caring for Hoosier kids outside the womb? Let's talk about Hoosier children. Five readings this past week really popped out. The first was a Feed America study in 21 counties in central Indiana that revealed on a daily basis, 320,000 Hoosiers -- including 100,000 kids -- don't know where the
- More Opinion Headlines
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
Aug. Trial Set for Ohio Man in Triple Kidnapping
Car Crash in NYC's East Village Injures 8
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Raw: Car Jumps Curb in NYC, Injures 8
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Raw: German President Welcomes President Obama
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Kid Couture: Spending Big Bucks on Babies
