Jonathan Cohn Is Shrill: Says Mitch Daniels Does Not Have a Good Health Care Plan
Jonathan Cohn:
Conservatives Tout Healthy Indiana As A Model For Health Care Reform. Here's Why It Isn't: Conservatives don't know whether Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, will run for president. But they know about the health care plan he introduced. And many of them are excited about it. The Healthy Indiana Plan, as it's known, is the Hoosier state's alternative to traditional Medicaid. It's also a viable alternative to the dreaded federal Affordable Care Act, if its boosters on the right are to be believed.
Do they have a case?...
Healthy Indiana.... Beneficiaries get a private, managed-care insurance policy that covers expenses beyond $1,500 and a so-called Power Account, modeled on HSAs. When beneficiaries go to the emergency room, they have to pay between $3 and $25 per visit.... [T]he program has reduced ER visits.... [T]he program is not as conservative as its reputation suggests. For one thing, Healthy Indiana applies cost-sharing with discretion. The monthly contributions into the Power Accounts vary between 2 percent and 5 percent of income, with the poorer recipients paying a smaller share than the richer ones. And that's only for people who have incomes. About one-third of the program's beneficiaries pay nothing at all. The state also regulates the insurers that participate in Healthy Indiana, requiring that they cover preventative care free of charge. These are the sorts of features favored by liberals.... Still, Healthy Indiana would not meet most liberals' expectations.... It also has lifetime caps on benefits....
[T]he underlying reality of Healthy Indiana that conservatives either don't acknowledge or don't realize: For what it offers, it's expensive.... Healthy Indiana doesn't seem to be providing better management of chronic disease, which is what the low-income population really needs...
