Medicaid users rally against proposed work requirements

By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com

Medicaid users and their supporters say proposed work requirements and eligibility checks could throw people off of the program even if they’re still eligible on paper.

More than 100 Medicaid advocates rallied at the Indiana Statehouse Tuesday, urging lawmakers and Gov. Mike Braun to reject legislation to add work requirements and impose quarterly eligibility checks for the Healthy Indiana Plan, a Medicaid program that covers able-bodied adults without children.

Susan Brackney is a freelance writer who uses the HIP program. She has rheumatoid arthritis and treatment-resistant depression that requires the use of a hard-to-find medication. Brackney told News 8 she would not be able to work at all if the HIP program didn’t allow her to afford her treatments.

“It’s not easy but it’s something I’ve cobbled together to get by and without it, I don’t know where I would be,” she said.

Legislative Republicans, particularly Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, have been sounding the alarm for years over the growth of Indiana’s Medicaid program.

Earlier this session, Mishler said Indiana’s Medicaid program is now growing faster than the state’s tax revenue and, at its current rate, could overtake education as the state’s largest budget item. In addition, budget writers, as well as Medicaid users, are watching to see if Congressional Republicans cut Medicaid funding.

The federal government currently pays for 90 percent of Indiana’s Medicaid budget, with the state covering the remaining 10 percent via tobacco taxes and hospital assessment fees. Mishler has said due to a recent court ruling, Indiana would not be able to change its funding makeup if the federal government reduces spending.

Mishler’s bill would require HIP program users to spent at least 20 hours a week working or volunteering. It has several exceptions, including for pregnant women or parents of children under age 6, people receiving unemployment benefits and people who have recently been released from prison. It also would require the Family and Social Services Administration to verify eligibility every quarter instead of once a year.

Brackney said that a quarterly check could pose a bigger threat to freelance or seasonal workers than the work requirement. Her income fluctuates depending on how much work she gets, so there might be some months where Brackney’s income shows up as being too high, followed by a period where she doesn’t earn as much. In addition, she’s had instances where the FSSA used the wrong number from her tax return.

“How many other people were they doing that to, and is that a feature or a bug?” Brackney said. “In a way, that’s a way to try to kick people off and they don’t have the wherewithal or the energy to try to navigate and get back on.”

Hoosier Action Medicaid Organizer Tracey Hutchings-Goetz said the bill’s current form could remove at least 110,000 people from Medicaid coverage and possibly as many as 150,000. She said lawmakers should pressure their federal counterparts not to cut Medicaid spending. Braun has already visited Washington to lobby for continued funding, Hutchings-Goetz said.

The bill has already passed the Senate and is currently in the House Ways and Means Committee, which is scheduled to vote on it on Wednesday.

This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/politics/medicaid-users-proposed-work-requirements.