More than half a year after the state expanded the Healthy Indiana Plan to low-income Hoosiers, the Volunteers in Medicine staff has learned a very important lesson — having insurance and having health care are two very different things.
Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured Hoosiers has decreased from 15.3 percent in 2013 to 13.6 percent in 2014, according to Gallup. As of July 15, statewide enrollment in HIP 2.0 reached 297,000, according to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.
But when VIM staff visited families in the Crestmont neighborhood, they found that even those who had insurance were falling into old patterns of behavior.
“If people don’t understand how to use their insurance, they don’t understand how to make an appointment, they don’t know how all this works, they go to the emergency department,” said Nancy Richman, executive director of Volunteers in Medicine of Monroe County.
“People with insurance are not getting health care. And health care reform does not work if people don’t use their insurance.”
Because VIM only sees patients without health insurance, the free clinic’s client volume has decreased about 50 percent since 2013, Richman said. Now, VIM’s registered nurses, nurse practitioners, medical assistants and pharmacist can focus more of their efforts on ensuring their former patients properly use the local health care system to address their current medical needs and prevent future health crises.
“VIM is a bridge in many ways between people who are newly insured and the medical system,” Richman said. “We consider our obligation to help people access medical care.”
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