[Indianapolis, Indiana] Rupert Boneham, Libertarian candidate for Governor, sent his official five page Affordable Care Act response to Governor Mitch Daniels, as requested. On July 30th, Daniels sent a letter to each of the three candidates running for governor, seeking their input and positions on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
In his letter, Boneham praised Daniels on his “tripartisan” leadership in seeking the opinions of all three gubernatorial candidates, including Democrat John Gregg and Republican Mike Pence.
Boneham stated that even with the months of research conducted by himself and his campaign team, he was concerned that too many questions have been left unanswered by Health and Human Services (HHS). “My team and I have been studying the information presented by Governor Daniels’ staff, the exchanges currently setup in Massachusetts and Utah, and the concept of Interstate Health Insurance Compacts. I can tell you that there are massive amounts of questions left unanswered by the federal agencies. Since we are required to make a partially blind decision… I would say that any plan for implementation of the Affordable Care Act must give Hoosiers the greatest amount of control and authority over regulation and plan management. The plan should also keep Indiana from being burdened with the unknown costs of managing the exchange.”
Boneham informed Daniels that, at this point, he would prefer Indiana develop a Hybrid Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) run as a partnership between Indiana and federal agencies. “In a Hybrid exchange, Indiana would retain control over plan management and customer assistance. We would also be able to set requirements and regulations, as needed, for consumer councilors and insurance brokers. The major financial burden in a state run exchange comes from the processing and reinsurance of Medicaid and CHIP. Under a hybrid exchange, some of those functions and costs can be deferred back to Health and Human Services.”
Boneham’s campaign manager, Evan McMahon was critical of the response recently released by Pence calling it the “do nothing plan.” McMahon continued by saying, “We can’t just duck our heads in the sand and pretend this is going to go away. Hoosiers expect their elected officials to lead…not just hide behind party ideology and empty rhetoric.”
A digital copy of the signed letter from Rupert Boneham to Governor Daniels is available at http://rupertforgovernor.com/ACAresponse.pdf