INDIANAPOLIS | Enrollment by childless adults in the state's health insurance program for the working poor will reopen in November, officials announced Tuesday.

Approximately 4,000 childless adult Hoosiers out of some 25,000 on a waiting list for the Healthy Indiana Plan will be contacted to see if they still want to participate.

Enrollment in the program was closed to childless adults in March, because the number of participants reached a federally mandated cap of 34,000. About 25,000 childless adults are currently participating, according to the state Family and Social Services Administration.

Other people on the waiting list will be contacted as spaces open up.

Overall, some 47,000 Hoosiers have health insurance through the Healthy Indiana Plan.

State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said he would like to see that number go much higher.

"It helps everyone if in fact we get people who are eligible and people that want to join this program to get them off the uninsured rolls," Brown said.

Then doctors and hospitals wouldn't get stuck covering treatments for people who can't pay, said Brown, an architect of the Healthy Indiana Plan. "It's a win-win situation by expanding the program."

So far, the state has been unsuccessful in its appeals to the federal government to raise the 34,000-participant cap. Brown said he hopes Indiana will try again.

"In light of the fact the federal government is looking at trying to get more people insured, we could save them a lot of money if in fact we were able to get more of these people into an insurance program," Brown said.

The federal government pays for about two-thirds of the cost of Healthy Indiana coverage, while the state pays the rest -- funded by a 44-cent hike in the cigarette tax that went into effect in July 2007.

Participants in the Healthy Indiana Plan make monthly contributions of between 2 and 5 percent of their income, up to $1,100 a year. Participation is limited to people and families making less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level: $20,800 for an individual or $35,200 for a family of three.