Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus Statement on Passage of SB 2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Tuesday, February 18, 2025

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Nancy Singh
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INDIANA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS STATEMENT ON PASSAGE OF SB 2 

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus has issued the following statement regarding the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2, which now moves to the House of Representatives:

“The Indiana Senate has passed SB 2, an attack on health care access that will strip thousands of Hoosiers of their coverage, punish working families and put even more financial strain on hospitals. The Indiana Senate Democratic Caucus strongly opposes this legislation and urges the Indiana House to stop SB 2 before it causes irreparable harm.

“For years, we have fought to ensure affordable, accessible health care for every Hoosier. We have offered solutions to make sure people stay covered, hospitals stay open and families stay financially secure. We have proposed responsible ways to fund health care programs without taking coverage away. But time and time again, those solutions are ignored.

“Governor Braun himself has said health care should be affordable and accessible. Yet SB 2 does the opposite. It makes care more expensive, harder to access, and leaves thousands with no coverage at all.

• The Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) has an upwards of 680,000 people enrolled in it right now, yet SB 2 arbitrarily caps enrollment at 500,000—leaving 200,000 eligible Hoosiers without health care simply because Republicans have chosen to limit access.

• SB 2 prohibits hospitals and providers from marketing or advertising about Medicaid eligibility, making it even harder for working families to understand their health care options.

• Instead of ensuring coverage for eligible Hoosiers, this bill creates administrative barriers, requiring redundant eligibility checks that will push more people off Medicaid—not because they don’t qualify, but because of bureaucratic red tape.

THIS BILL DOES NOT PRIORITIZE HOOSIERS—IT ABANDONS THEM 

“We cannot comprehend how this is the approach being taken to prioritize Hoosiers. How does making it harder to access care help working families? How does reducing coverage make health care more affordable? How does denying information to Hoosiers about their own eligibility serve the people of Indiana? It doesn’t.

“This bill will not save money—it will cost lives and drive up expenses for everyone.

• Hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers could lose coverage unnecessarily. More than 371,000 Hoosiers have already been disenrolled from Medicaid during the state’s unwinding process—many due to bureaucratic confusion, not ineligibility. This bill will only make it worse.

• Rural hospitals will suffer. When people lose coverage, they don’t stop needing care—they just delay it until it becomes a medical crisis. Uncompensated care costs will skyrocket, pushing more hospitals to the brink of closure. Indiana has already seen 10 rural hospitals shut down since 2010, and many more remain at risk.

• Working Hoosiers will be punished. Sixty-five percent of Indiana’s Medicaid recipients are employed but rely on Medicaid because their jobs don’t offer health insurance. SB 2 punishes working families simply because they don’t have employer-sponsored coverage.

• Health care costs will rise for everyone. When people are kicked off Medicaid, they don’t stop needing care—they just seek it in emergency rooms. That drives up costs, and hospitals pass those costs onto insured Hoosiers through higher premiums and medical bills.

INDIANA HAS THE MONEY—THIS IS A MATTER OF PRIORITIES 

“Indiana has the resources to ensure every eligible Hoosier has access to affordable health care. Instead, SB 2 rations coverage, forces people off their plans and creates artificial barriers to care—all while doing nothing to actually reduce costs.

“We are not seeing how this prioritizes Hoosiers. We are not seeing how stripping health care from working families makes our state stronger. We are not seeing how making it harder for Hoosiers to stay insured is a responsible policy decision. We are not seeing how limiting access to critical care does anything but hurt Indiana’s economy, hospitals and communities.

“Hoosiers were told that health care would be affordable and accessible under this administration.

“SB 2 does the opposite. It makes it more expensive and harder to access. It is a direct contradiction to the promises made to the people of Indiana.”