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Medicaid Poised To Change With Proposed Obamacare Repeal

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Republican lawmakers are intending overhaul the healthcare system at the federal level.

NPR reports, Kelleyanne Conway, the Counselor to the President, has expressed that one of the ways the program will be changed is by turning Medicaid into a block grant program, giving states’ the financial authority over how best to manage their healthcare.

Proponents of this change feel that this will allow for more local authority over medical care-giving, while opponents claim that this will lead to cuts in service, higher deductibles, and eventually less enrollment.

Indiana is one of the 31 states to adopt the expansion in the form of HIP 2.0, and Gov. Holcomb is in favor of more state choice, such as the block grant system. Is Indiana due for another revision to its’ healthcare system?

While we cannot be sure what exactly will happen until legislators begin work on the ACA, Kosali Simon of Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs says,

"There are plans brewing, we just haven't seen the details. we do have some inklings of what will be in those plans, and Medicaid block grants are among them."

Leslie Green also has serious concerns regarding the restructuring of public healthcare options. Her organization, Stone Belt, serves people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities, and although they generally have been eligible for Medicaid before the ACA went into effect, Green says, "As the congress and the president are looking at changes in the ACA, they are also going to use this as an opportunity to change this long term Medicaid entitlement program that has offered really important community based supports for decades."

Guests Included:

Kosali Simon, Professor, School  of Public and Environmental Affairs

Leslie Green, CEO, Stone Belt Arc INC

Nancy Woolery, Health Projects Manager, City of Bloomington

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