Medicaid Users Protest Proposed Work Requirements

Medicaid users and their supporters are rallying against proposed work requirements and eligibility checks that they say could throw people off of the program even if they're still eligible on paper. More than 100 Medicaid advocates gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to urge lawmakers and Gov. Mike Braun to reject legislation adding work requirements and quarterly eligibility checks for the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), a Medicaid program covering able-bodied adults without children.

Susan Brackney, a freelance writer who uses the HIP program, has rheumatoid arthritis and treatment-resistant depression that requires costly medication. She said she wouldn't 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."

Legislative Republicans have been sounding the alarm over the growth of Indiana's Medicaid program. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Ryan Mishler has said that if left unchecked, Indiana's Medicaid program could overtake education as the state's largest budget item.

Mishler's bill would require HIP program users to spend at least 20 hours a week working or volunteering, with several exceptions for groups like pregnant women, parents of children under age 6, and people receiving unemployment benefits. The bill would also require quarterly eligibility checks instead of the current annual check.

Brackney said that the quarterly check could pose a bigger threat to freelance or seasonal workers than the work requirement, as their income may fluctuate depending on the amount of work they get. She's had instances where the Family and Social Services Administration used incorrect numbers from her tax return.

"How many other people were they doing that to, and is that a feature or a bug? 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 urged lawmakers to pressure their federal counterparts not to cut Medicaid spending.

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.