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Indiana Health Insurance Exchange Marketplace

Indiana depends on the federally facilitated exchange, so people enroll through HealthCare.gov.

Two carriers are offering 2020 coverage for people and families in the Indiana health insurance marketplace.

Costs of 2020 health insurance coverage in Indiana were higher, with significant rate increases;

• CareSource9 percent average increase
• Celtic(MHS/Ambetter): 18.9 percent average increase

Indiana Open Enrollment Period and Dates

Open enrollment for 2020 health insurance in Indiana has ended. However, Indiana people with qualifying events can still enroll or make changes to their coverage for 2020 (as well as anyone who loses employer-sponsored health insurance amid the Covid-19 pandemic). The next open enrollment period, for health insurance plans effective in 2021, will begin November 1, 2020.

Indiana Short-Term Health Insurance

Indiana has its own state laws regarding short-term health insurance plans, but the laws changed in mid-2019. The state now allows short-term plans to follow the federal rules in terms of duration (terms of up to 364 days, and total duration, as well as renewals, of up to three years), but the state imposes numerous other restrictions, including a benefit cap of at least $2 million.

History of the Affordable Care Act in Indiana

Indiana employs the federally facilitated health insurance exchange HealthCare.gov., and while previous Governors Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence both opposed the ACA, Pence did push for – and get – federal approval to expand Medicaid using a waiver to improve the Healthy Indiana Plan. The federal government rejected the state’s first proposal, but a second proposal was enacted in January 2015, and expanded coverage was in effect by February 2015.

Former Gov. Pence became Vice President of the United States in January 2017. In the 2016 vote, Republican Eric Holcomb won the gubernatorial election in Indiana. Holcomb is against the ACA and supported House Republicans in their pursuit to pass the AHCA. The law passed in the House in May 2017 but failed in the Senate. It would have frozen Medicaid expansion funding for new enrollees at the end of 2019 and would have lead to smaller overall premium subsidies in the individual market, along with significantly higher premiums for persons over the age of 50.

Indiana’s Medicare Coverage and Enrollment

By late 2019, there were 1,263,526 Indiana inhabitants enrolled in Medicare. 83 percent of those qualified were based on age alone, while the other 20 percent were qualified due to a disability.

Compared with the national average, Indiana Medicare beneficiaries are less likely to choose a Medicare Advantage plan, and more likely to choose a stand-alone Medicare Part D plan.

High-Risk Pool in Indiana

Before the ACA was reformed the individual health insurance market, applications were medically underwritten in almost every state, including Indiana. As a result, persons with pre-existing conditions were often ineligible to buy private policies or were only able to get policies that excluded their pre-existing conditions or charged them significantly higher premiums for wide coverage.

The Indiana Comprehensive Health Insurance Association was created in 1982 to offer an alternative for residents who could not obtain coverage in the private market because of their medical history.

Under the Affordable Care Act, all new health insurance plans became a guaranteed issue starting on January 1, 2014. This aspect of healthcare reform meant that policies in the individual market could be purchased irrespective of medical history, making high-risk pools mostly obsolete.

Resources and References:

• Indiana Comprehensive Health Insurance Association
• Medicaid