States are beginning to look anew at imposing cost-sharing requirements on their Medicaid population.
Indiana now requires Medicaid recipients to contribute to health savings accounts, Arkansas and Iowa have cost-sharing requirements, and Arizona, Ohio, and Utah are considering introducing cost-sharing.
This new trend is emerging after years out of favor when cost-sharing in Medicaid and children’s health insurance programs led to declining enrollment in Florida, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
The new “Healthy Indiana Plan” is receiving a good deal of attention for its use of health savings accounts instead of premiums and co-pays.  People who put money in their health savings accounts essentially get free care while those who engage in certain preventive activities can see their required contributions fall and those who fail to make the payments can lose some benefits.
Learn more about the renewed interest in requiring Medicaid patients to pay for some of their health care and the potential implications of such an effort in this Los Angeles Times article.