VALPARAISO – Katherine Burke was able to qualify for Medicaid while she was pregnant with her two children, but a few months after she gave birth to her youngest son, she found out that she was no longer eligible.
“I managed to keep it for five years, but it was like pulling teeth to continue coverage sometimes; they always wanted me to send them another piece of information,” said Burke, who works part-time and lives in Valparaiso.
Last week’s announcement that Indiana will be expanding Medicaid to residents making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level through its Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 vehicle opens up another path to coverage for Burke and thosands of others.
An estimated 350,000 uninsured Indiana residents are poised to gain health coverage through the program, which offers two tiers of coverage – HIP Basic and HIP Plus. Enrollees must make monthly contributions — ranging from $1 to $26 based on income — to a POWER account to receive HIP Plus coverage, which includes dental and vision coverage that HIP Basic does not.
“I’d rather pay for it because at least it’s guaranteed to be there,” Burke said. “I have bad vision, and you never know if you’re going to need to see the doctor for something, especially in the winter.”
Burke was discovering her coverage options Thursday at an open house sponsored by HealthLinc.
“My boss signed up for coverage (through the exchange) and he said it was really affordable,” Burke said.
Getting the word out about HIP 2.0 has been a priority for health centers like HealthLinc.
“We’re already hearing from people who saw it in the paper,” said Jane Burton, an enrollment specialist.
Outreach and enrollment manager Lauren Lamb said they have been compiling a waitlist of about 800 community members who they have worked with in the past.
“We’re sending out a postcard to them to let them know that HIP 2.0 has been approved and they might qualify,” Lamb said. “We’ll also been sending out about 5,000 postcards to our regular patients here. So there are a lot of people to help.”
HealthLinc offers several outreach sessions each month during the enrollment period for the health insurance marketplace, which ends on Feb. 15, but they expect demand for HIP 2.0 to increase of over the next few weeks and months. There is no enrollment deadline for HIP 2.0.
“We’ll try to train more people at our site, so that we can have more hands on deck,” Lamb said.
Gary’s Community HealthNet holds weekly enrollment sessions, so they will reach out to people who they have helped as well as patients within the health center, said executive director Dr. Janet Seabrook.
“We have hired additional staff to go out into the community to educate people on their coverage options,” Seabrook said. “We are very excited what this means.”
TO ENROLL:
For information on how to enroll in the Healthy Indiana Plan, visit http://www.HIP.IN.gov or call (877) 438-4479.
Community HealthNet: 880-1190
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HealthLinc: 462-7173
NorthShore Health Centers: 763-8112
Planned Parenthood: (800) 230-7526
Community Healthcare System: 836-3477
Methodist Hospitals: 880-2168
Fransciscan Alliance: (866) 789-7802