SB 2, proposed legislation at the Indiana General Assembly, threatens to take away healthcare coverage from hundreds of thousands of low-income Hoosiers by adding harmful new paperwork requirements to Indiana's Medicaid programs. Although amendments to SB 2 have removed some dangerous provisions from the bill, SB 2 still threatens Hoosier health by: 

• Adding burdensome new paperwork requirements for all Indiana Medicaid members, including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. This will most likely lead to people who qualify for Medicaid losing coverage and then having to reenroll due to paperwork issues, a disruptive and expensive process referred to as “churn.”

• Subject HIP members to new work reporting requirements, which could lead to an estimated 150,000 HIP members losing coverage, and drive-up the administrative costs of the program, wasting public dollars.

Indiana’s Medicaid programs, including HIP, provide essential healthcare coverage for nearly 2 million Hoosiers. HIP enables 1 in 7 Hoosiers to get and afford the essential healthcare we all need to live, work, and take care of their families.

The new administrative requirements proposed by SB 2 would not only lead hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers to lose their healthcare coverage, SB 2 will make all of Indiana’s Medicaid programs more expensive to run, wasting public dollars to create costly new bureaucracy and unnecessary barriers for members. Money that could be used to improve Hoosier health will instead go toward managing a complex system of repetitious eligibility checks and exemptions. 

SB 2 will cause a huge spike in the uninsured rate, destabilizing Indiana's healthcare system, driving up healthcare costs for all Hoosiers and threatening the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers.