{"id":17575,"date":"2013-04-01T14:49:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T18:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=17575"},"modified":"2013-04-01T14:49:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T18:49:25","slug":"indiana%e2%80%99s-pence-makes-progress-with-innovative-medicaid-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/17575\/indiana%e2%80%99s-pence-makes-progress-with-innovative-medicaid-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana\u2019s Pence Makes Progress with Innovative Medicaid Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indystar.com\/article\/20130401\/NEWS05\/304010052\/House-committee-alters-controversial-Medicaid-expansion-plan-backed-by-Gov-Mike-Pence?nclick_check=1\" target=\"_blank\">Indianapolis Star<\/a> reports that Indiana Republican Governor Mike Pence, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, cleared an important hurdle today when the state\u2019s House Public Health Committee approved a bill to expand Medicaid eligibility without relying on ObamaCare\u2019s open-ended spending incentives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/17157\/indiana%E2%80%99s-pence-wants-sensible-reform-to-medicaid-expansion\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pence\u2019s plan<\/a> would increase Indiana\u2019s Medicaid enrollment by an estimated 400,000, but within the state\u2019s Healthy Indiana initiative begun in 2007.\u00a0 As a health savings account, Healthy Indiana allots a certain amount of money to qualifying Hoosiers who then shop for doctors and treatment options within their budget.\u00a0 In effect, it transfers the decision making process for health care away from government bureaucrats to private citizens.\u00a0 By capping the amount, Healthy Indiana also gives state budget writers more certainty about the cost of Medicaid expansion in future years.<\/p>\n<p>Contrast this with the unlimited spending commitment envisioned by the Medicaid expansion system under ObamaCare, and conservatives will see why Pence\u2019s proposal should be watched closely.\u00a0 Under ObamaCare, states would pay no cost for expanding their eligibility pool up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line.\u00a0 But starting in 2017, those that expanded enrollment would pay for 10 percent of the increase.\u00a0 Though seemingly a small percentage, <a href=\"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/index.php\/commentary\/61-state-issues\/1739-republican-governors-opt-for-obamacare-medicaid-expansion-at-taxpayers-expense \" target=\"_blank\">the costs will run into the billions<\/a>, with even more likely if the federal government decides to reduce its 90 percent subsidy, as President Barack Obama has already hinted at doing.<\/p>\n<p>The future of health insurance reform looks like it will include <a href=\"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/17570\/obama-should-call-an-audible-with-late-budget-proposal\/\" target=\"_blank\">some mix<\/a> of government-regulated exchanges, subsidies, and cost controls.\u00a0 The question dividing conservatives like Mike Pence and Paul Ryan on one hand from liberals like Obama on the other, is who gets to make the lion\u2019s share of the decisions on how health insurance dollars are spent.\u00a0 Conservatives value individual choice, while liberals favor centrally planned mandates.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, if the President wants ObamaCare to be fiscally sustainable, he\u2019ll have to accept that the only way to do it is allowing conservatives like Pence and Ryan to inject into it as much personal freedom as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana Republican Governor Mike Pence, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, cleared an important hurdle today when the state\u2019s House Public Health Committee approved a bill to expand Medicaid eligibility without relying on ObamaCare\u2019s open-ended spending incentives. Pence\u2019s plan would increase Indiana\u2019s Medicaid enrollment by an estimated 400,000, but within the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[143,70,3308,781,1829,232,780,802,1447,61],"class_list":["post-17575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-barack-obama","tag-budget","tag-health","tag-indiana","tag-insurance","tag-medicaid","tag-mike-pence","tag-paul-ryan","tag-reform","tag-spending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17575"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17584,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17575\/revisions\/17584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}