By Niki Kelly | Editor-in-Chief
“I work. … I try to follow the rules. And now I have to do everything while I’m physically not good. It makes doing everything the way they want you to do it even harder.” — Tyree Collins, who lost his Medicaid coverage
Today we kick off a three-day series on why Indiana is leading the nation in Medicaid enrollment drops. And it’s not because people are ineligible.
Casey Smith spent months digging into the numbers and talking to Hoosiers impacted by the trend.
A counter-demonstration to a pro-deportation event drew about 1,000 people Saturday.
States are getting frustrated about online prediction markets.
Plus, be sure to check out the Indiana Citizen’s story on Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s support for a religious oath by officeholders.
Insurance enrollment resources offered during the Remote Area Medical clinic in Terre Haute on July 25, 2026. Advocates say Indiana’s new and upcoming Medicaid program requirements could make it even harder for eligible Hoosiers to keep their coverage. (Photo by Casey Smith/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
More than numbers: Inside Indiana's Medicaid enrollment decline
By Casey Smith
Indiana’s Medicaid rolls have shrunk by more than 343,000 people in a single year — an 18.5% drop that ranks among the steepest in the country. That has left hospitals, healthcare providers and advocates bracing for an increasingly uninsured population.
Some of the dropoff was expected after states resumed routine eligibility reviews. Other Hoosiers have left the program because their income, household circumstances or other eligibility factors changed and they no longer qualified.
But state records show actual ineligibility explains only a fraction of the recent departures.
COMMENTARY
Indiana’s Home and Community-Based Services Medicaid waiver helps children and adults with intellectual, physical, or developmental disabilities and older adults live at home instead of in a nursing home or facility. (Getty Images)
Everything, everywhere, all at once
By Kim Dodson
For many Indiana families supporting a loved one with an intellectual or developmental disability, that isn't just the title of an Oscar-winning movie. It's what life feels like right now.
Since late 2023, Indiana's Medicaid waiver system has undergone wave after wave of change. Families have had to navigate new service rules, changing case management providers, limits on therapies, provider network transitions, and repeated changes to who can be paid to provide waiver services. They are now adjusting to a new assessment process that has left many individuals, despite decades of meeting service requirements, with reduced services or no waiver services at all.
NATIONAL NEWS
Online prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket are attracting scrutiny from state lawmakers, who argue the platforms are undermining state gambling regulations. (Photo by Alyssa Chen/Minnesota Reformer)
Online prediction markets rile up state lawmakers
By Kevin Hardy Name
CHICAGO — The escalating feud between states and online prediction markets was on full display at a summit of state lawmakers this week as legislators publicly scolded Kalshi and Polymarket, the two most prominent platforms.
Prediction market platforms say they are like commodity markets that offer contracts to speculate on the future price of corn or oil — not sportsbooks that allow gamblers to place bets. But many states reject those justifications, arguing the platforms are a backdoor to skirt state gambling regulations, particularly on sports.
The issue has sparked action from state regulators, new legislation, and a flurry of lawsuits from states, prediction markets, and the Trump administration, which has sought to sideline state oversight.
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