Gov. Pence rejects Ind. Medicaid expansion

Gov. Mike Pence rejected the notion to expand traditional Medicaid. The governor drafted a letter to Health Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, requesting federal approval to implement the Healthy Indiana Program — a program that would serve the expanded Medicaid population.

In the letter to Sebelius, Pence cited “fundamental flaws in the traditional Medicaid program,” according to a press release.

“Medicaid is broken,” Pence said in the release. “In Indiana, an expansion of traditional Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would cost our taxpayers upwards of $2 billion over the next seven years.”

HIP, with its bipartisan support, will serve as the starting point for future discussions regarding state health care reform. Pence called for the HIP model to be used as the basis for Medicaid reform and pressed for the federal government to grant states additional flexibility to tailor Medicaid programs.

There are 94 percent of HIP members who are satisfied with the program, and 99 percent say they would re-enroll, according to the release.

“Greater flexibility would help states create and manage a program that is consistent with their local values and overcome the bureaucratic and inefficient nature of traditional Medicaid,” Pence said in the release.

— Michael Majchrowicz