Trump administration’s Medicaid cuts could impact over 750K Hoosiers

By KYLA RUSSELL
WISH-TV | wishtv.com

Medicaid for over 750,000 people in Indiana could be at risk come January if large financial cuts are made under the Trump administration.

“Well, for me, it’s scary, because Medicaid covers like eighty million people in the world, so it’s for people in poverty, middle class, low class, and so with that being said, without having it, it would take a toll on me,” Indianapolis mom Panchita Anderson said.

Anderson is a mother to a 7-year-old daughter. She receives healthcare coverage through the Healthy Indiana Plan, a form of Medicaid.

In Indiana, nearly 2 million people are on Medicaid and about 754,000 of them are on the Healthy Indiana Plan. The plan is set up for qualifying adults between 19 and 64 years old and the federal government currently covers 90 percent of the program’s costs.

Trump has hinted at making major financial cuts to Medicaid. The move would immediately impact people covered under HIP due to a state code from 2016. The code says that if HIP’s federal funding falls under 90 percent, the plan will be terminated and the original, lesser, plan can be implemented.

That plan would likely allow for fewer people to receive coverage across the state.

Anderson uses the coverage to treat chronic illness and said that without treatment, she would not be able to take proper care of her daughter.

“I would be financially unstable to even supply for our health and that is dangerous,” Anderson said.

Tracey Hutchings-Goetz, communications and policy director at Hoosier Action, said the impact would be insurmountable.

“At its most devastating, we know that lack of health insurance can be deadly,” Hutchings-Goetz said. “When people delay care because of fear of cost, it can lead to devastating consequences, whether it is someone who is rationing insulin that they could not otherwise afford or other medications that are lifesaving.”

She said the effects can be long term. People may choose not to attend their annual appointment or follow up on preventative care because they don’t have the money to pay for it out of pocket.

Hospitals across the state dependent on the federal coverage could be impacted too.

“We are looking at our provider shortage becoming significantly worse because folks can’t afford to practice medicine in this state,” Hutchings-Goetz said.

Anderson said she plans to make her voice heard ahead of Inauguration Day.

“We need to all come together and go downtown and kind of protest for our health,” Anderson said. “Because, if we don’t choose this for our health, then it’s going to be a lot of deaths coming up, because health is the biggest thing in our life when we have to take care of ourselves.”

This story was originally published by WISH-TV at wishtv.com/news/trump-administrations-medicaid-cuts-could-impact-over-750k-hoosiers.