INDIANAPOLIS | Gov. Mitch Daniels said Indiana's financial future would be brighter if the new national health care reform law could be repealed.
Speaking with reporters in his Statehouse office Friday, the Republican governor said "we'd be far better off to repeal this bill and replace it with one based on consumerism that empowers and entrusts individuals, as opposed to their employers or the government, to make health care decisions."
A May 12 estimate by Milliman Inc., the state's actuary, predicted Indiana will spend between $2.9 billion and $3.6 billion over the next decade to pay the health care expenses of thousands of Hoosiers eligible for state coverage under the new law.
"That's money that won't be available for education, for law enforcement, the other functions of state government," Daniels said. "Most of the hit will come in a few years, so it will fall to others to decide whether to slash education, which is half the budget, or raise taxes or some combination."
U.S. Reps. Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis, and Baron Hill, D-Seymour, recently challenged Milliman's assumptions about the new law and suggested fewer Hoosiers would participate than estimated, making Indiana's costs to implement health care reform much less.
In a letter sent Friday to the two Congressman, Daniels defended the estimate and suggested it was unlikely that thousands of Hoosiers who would be entitled to "free" health care would choose instead to continue paying for it themselves.
"In any scenario, the cost of federal health care reform will create an enormous new burden for the taxpayers of Indiana," Daniels said in his letter.
Daniels has consistently opposed the health care legislation and urged Indiana's Congressional delegation to vote against the measure while it was under consideration. Ultimately all of Indiana's Democratic members of Congress voted for the legislation, including U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, while all of Indiana's Republican members of Congress voted no.