Lawmaker: Maybe Indiana Should Drop Out Of Medicaid

Indiana should consider dropping out of the Medicaid program, the chairman of the State Budget Committee suggested Wednesday after an actuary estimated that the federal health care overhaul could cost the state as much as $3.6 billion over the next decade.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said the costs to Indiana will be so great that the state should consider the drastic step of creating another option to Medicaid.

"I think the federal government is putting us in a position where we're going to have to consider those kinds of alternatives," said Kenley, who heads the bipartisan budget panel.

"For example, we might want to drop out of the Medicaid program and see if we can design a ... health care system which is more effective than what we currently have, with the costs that we have, that will provide services to all of our Indiana residents," he said.

Medicaid, for which the federal government pays 65 percent of costs, currently enrolls more than 1 million Indiana residents in programs such as Hoosier Healthwise for children and pregnant woman, the Healthy Indiana Plan for uninsured, low-income adults and Care Select for people with disabilities.

Actuary Robert Damler of Milliman Inc., a consultant to the state Medicaid program, said the number of Indiana enrollees could expand to as many as 1.55 million, or about one of every four state residents, under the federal health care overhaul.

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