Ad campaign starting for expanded Healthy Indiana Plan

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – State officials are about to launch an advertising campaign to encourage enrollments in Indiana’s expanded health care program for low-income residents.

The $2 million campaign for the new Healthy Indiana Plan starts Monday with television, radio, newspaper and billboards ads. It will focus on health services like cancer screenings or preventive dental care that people go without because they don’t have insurance.

State Medicaid director Joe Moser tells The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette the program has had a good start, enrolling about 177,000 new participants since winning federal approval early this year. Officials hope to add about 70,000 more people this year.

Caitlin Priest of the advocacy group Covering Kids & Families tells the Indianapolis Business Journal the ad campaign will test whether the program can accommodate so many participants.