House Democrats call on Statehouse Republican leadership, Gov. Holcomb to protect Medicaid program

Today, Indiana House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) and Ranking House Ways and Means Committee Democrat Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis) called on Statehouse Republican leadership and Gov. Eric Holcomb to protect Indiana’s Medicaid program in light of proposed cuts prompted by Republicans’ $1 billion budgeting shortfall.  

GiaQuinta and Porter were joined by their House Democratic colleagues and Jennifer and Jackson Dewitt. Jennifer currently provides care for her son Jackson under the Aged & Disability waiver attendant care program that FSSA has proposed cutting, along with several other Medicaid programs and services. 

GiaQuinta and Porter called for Statehouse Republicans to implement the following policy items:

Keep families covered and provide a continuity of care.  

1. Allow families providing extraordinary medical care for their medically complex children to remain in an attendant care program.
   1. No family should have to experience a loss of benefits for any amount of time.  
   2. Define “extraordinary care” and put guardrails in place to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of the program.  
2. Protect the 2% rate indexing across Medicaid services.  

Force FSSA to keep their promises to Hoosiers and implement fiscally responsible safeguards.  

1. Require an impact study that reviews how each of the eight proposed cuts will impact Hoosier beneficiaries and disclose why each program was chosen for cuts. 
2. No more reversions and diversions out of the Medicaid fund.  
3. Require real-time Medicaid accounting and transparency in the form of quarterly fiscal reports to the State Budget Committee and Medicaid Oversight Committee.  
4. Require that FSSA and the State Budget Agency prepare a report to the SBC explaining how the accounting error happened.   
5. Join with the Lieutenant Governor in calling for an audit of FSSA. 

“At the start of this legislative session, House Democrats promised to protect Medicaid,” GiaQuinta said. “Today, I and my House Democratic colleagues are calling on Gov. Holcomb and legislative Republican leadership to stand up for everyday, regular Hoosiers. Children with disabilities and their families simply cannot pay the price for Republicans’ budgeting error.”   

“Let me start with a simple statement: It's not the money, it's the mindset,” Porter said. “The state of Indiana can afford to cover this shortfall. This is not a budgeting issue. The issue is with the will of the majority to solve a massive error that's threatening healthcare access for a third of Hoosiers. Indiana doesn't need to cut a single penny from the Medicaid program. We withdrew $271.2 from the Medicaid Reserve fund and brought the shortfall down to $713.1 million. The state has more than enough to cover the remaining shortfall in the surplus; not to mention we're already $450 million above the revenue forecast for SFY 2024. There is nothing more worthy the state could fund than the health of Hoosiers.”