An open letter to the House Ways & Means members:
Dear Legislators,
Hoosiers want all our families, friends, and neighbors to have food for their table and medical care when needed.
Senate Bill 1 creates unnecessary burdens for families at risk of hunger and in need of health care. At a time when food insecurity is rising for Hoosiers, medical debt burdens many families, and costs for health care are increasing, Senate Bill 1 makes it even harder to access supports by removing flexibility for the state and adding burdens to program applicants — without regard for what Hoosiers and our communities need. The burdensome requirements in Senate Bill 1 will increase paperwork errors and churn throughout Indiana’s Medicaid and SNAP system, resulting in more uninsured and hungry Hoosiers, and increasing the instability and costs of our healthcare system for all Hoosiers.
The slew of new administrative requirements proposed in SB 1 will also make SNAP and Medicaid more expensive and complicated for FSSA to run, wasting public dollars to create costly new bureaucracy. This is money that could be used to feed our most vulnerable families and ensure they can see the doctor will instead go toward managing a complex system of repetitious eligibility checks and exemptions, more than doubling FSSA’s workload, and likely providing no cost savings to the state.
Senate Bill 1:
- Requires three months of Medicaid pre-enrollment compliance before a person is eligible, locking the state into the most stringent federal option outlined in HR 1.
- Mandates monthly compliance checks for Medicaid recipients and at least quarterly verifications.
- Requires medical certification for someone to be determined medically frail, increasing the barriers to care for individuals with serious chronic health conditions, cancer, and disabilities.
- Prohibits short-term hardship exemptions that the state can use under federal law.
- Implements Medicaid work reporting requirements before the federal requirement, locking FSSA into compliance whether or not they are ready in time.
- Leaves out education as a countable activity toward the 80 hours required for federal compliance, forcing students to choose between their education or healthcare.
- Reduces benefits or makes a household ineligible by changing the calculation for families who have someone who isn’t SNAP eligible.
- Eliminates a state option used in SNAP to use expanded (broad based) categorical eligibility (BBCE). This process is currently used in 46 states and can simplify eligibility for individuals by adjusting gross income limits to smooth out and virtually eliminate the benefit cliff in the SNAP program as families gain more earnings. It also allows states to modify the asset limit to encourage modest savings, which is how Indiana uses this tool. BBCE also reduces the tax burden as it simplifies the process for SNAP administration and lowers ‘churn’.
Senate Bill 1 adds administrative costs to the taxpayers’ tab and more red tape when we should be working to lower error rates and streamlining programs to reduce what state dollars Indiana must pay from changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. These provisions place a significant burden on Medicaid members and FSSA, but fail to address actual fraud and profiteering in the Medicaid system, overwhelmingly perpetuated by businesses, NOT individual members.
Hoosier families need programs like SNAP and Medicaid as a bridge to better nutrition, better health, and a better life.
What we truly need is to find ways to streamline SNAP and Medicaid, not just for recipients, but for Hoosier taxpayers who will soon foot more of the bill. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate on legislation to reduce the cost of the program over time through better design that improves both individual and population health and moves as many people as possible off Medicaid as they use HIP 2.0 as a springboard not only to better health, but to more stable
employment and less dependence on all government programs.
We, the undersigned organizations, ask you to oppose Senate Bill 1.
Respectfully,
Feeding Indiana’s Hungry Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute
Statewide Organizations:
American Heart Association
The Arc of Indiana
Blood Cancer United
Citizens Action Coalition of IN
Exodus Refugee Immigration
Good Trouble Indiana
Hoosier Action
Indiana Afterschool Network
Indiana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Indiana Community Action Association
Indiana Council of Community Mental Health Centers
Indiana Disability Rights
Indiana Justice Project
Indiana Poor People’s Campaign
Indiana School Counselor Association (INSCA)
Indiana Family to Family
Indiana Families United for Care
Immigrant Welcome Center
IYG
National Association of Social Workers Indiana Chapter
No Kid Hungry Indiana
The Mast Cell Disease Society, Inc.
Pack Away Hunger
Prosperity Indiana
Prosperity Indiana
SEIU HCIL
Regional/Local Organizations & Businesses:
A Couple Cooks
A Longer Table
accessABILITY Center for Independent Living, Inc.
And Campaign Indy Chapter
Brightpoint
Catholic Charities Terre Haute Foodbank
CHIP Indy
Church World Service Indianapolis
Community Action of Southern Indiana
Community Harvest Food Bank of NE IN, Inc
Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis
Dare to Care Food Bank
Edgewater Health
El Centro Comunal Latino
EmployIndy
Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana
First Baptist Church North, Indpls
Food Bank of Northern Indiana
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana
Food Finders Food Bank
Freestore Foodbank
Garnet Group LLC
Geist Christian Church
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana
Greater Indianapolis Multifaith Alliance (GIMA)
Guerin Woods & Providence House
Hoosier Hills Food Bank
INcompass Healthcare
Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council
Indianapolis Urban League
Indy Hunger Network
Interfaith Action Network
JB Real Estate Consultants
Kate Shepherd Communications, LLC
Lafayette Urban Ministry
MADVoters
Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY)
Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard
NAACP Richmond Indiana Branch #3066
NWI Food Council
NWI Interfaith Action Network
Oaklawn Psychiatric
Pleasant View Lutheran Church
Purpose of Life Academy
Richmond Housing & Health Rights Coalition
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana
Second Helpings
Social Ministry and Mission Committee of Christ Lutheran Church, Valparaiso
Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare
St. Vincent de Paul Indianapolis
Students for a National Health Program at IUSM
The AfricaLogical Institute
The Brave Bakery
Tri-State Food Bank
