Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Friday, September 21, 2007
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Indiana’s new health program for the uninsured has gotten the final green light from the federal government.
Legislators agreed to an insurance plan for the uninsured and a cigarette-tax hike to cover it in April, but the state needed a waiver from Medicaid rules to go forward.
Family and Social Services Secretary Mitch Roob says that meant negotiations over how much the state will get in federal matching funds. Roob and Governor Daniels flew to Washington Thursday to finalize the deal with the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The government had concerns about an increase in state reimbursements to doctors for care to Medicaid patients, the first increase in 13 years.
There were also thorny issues about how to cover adults without children. The state did give in to government insistence that the state use an insurance broker to help Hoosiers decide between two insurance packages under the program.
Fssa has reached a deal with anthem to offer one of the insurance packages, and is close to one with Golden Rule/MDwise for the other. The government will pay 220-million dollars a year, just under two-thirds of the total cost.
Enrollment begins in December, with coverage starting the following month. The state hopes to cover 130-thousand low-income Hoosiers who otherwise wouldn't have insurance.
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