Legislature to mull Medicaid expansion Feb. 2

Medicaid expansion will finally get a hearing in the Idaho Legislature next week, and if passed, it would save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.

Senate Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, told the Lewiston Tribune he will allow a hearing to take place Feb. 2.

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, introduced the legislation earlier this session, as two personal bills.

“It is important to note that this is not a print hearing,” Schmidt told The Press on Thursday. “This will be a full hearing and will include a vote.”

He plans to introduce two bills that he has dubbed the “vanilla bill” and the “French vanilla bill.”

The “vanilla” proposal would expand Medicaid eligibility to cover everyone who earns less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Schmidt said this is what Gov. Otter’s Health Care Task Force recommended in 2013, when the Legislature passed legislation to create the Idaho health care exchange to comply with the Affordable Care Act.

Schmidt said if that original bill were to pass, it would save the state roughly $45 million in catastrophic health care costs, and would collectively save Idaho’s counties $20 million in indigent health care costs.

Schmidt said the “French vanilla” proposal would expand Medicaid coverage to all Idahoans who fall below 100 percent of the federal poverty level and save the state roughly $24 million.

He said the second bill would still leave a gap of uninsured people who are below 138 percent of the poverty line and above 100 percent of the federal poverty level, but the savings in the catastrophic health care costs could be used to cover those people with insurance from Idaho’s health care exchange.

Schmidt said the “French vanilla” proposal is patterned after Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program.

Since Idaho’s health care exchange was created, the state has reduced its catastrophic care spending by one third because more Idahoans are now insured.

In fact, earlier this week the Legislature refunded $29 million to its general fund, from an excess accumulated in the state’s catastrophic health care fund over the past two years.

“When we did that, I took the time to thank the Legislature and governor for taking that on,” Schmidt said, adding it was an incredibly difficult vote for many of the conservative legislators.

Idaho's Republican-dominated Legislature has consistently refused to consider expanding Medicaid, which is a provision under the Affordable Care Act.

However, lawmakers have acknowledged for years that the state's current system of caring for the indigent is broken.

Heider told the Tribune he approved the hearing as a courtesy to Schmidt's longtime work on the issue.

Meanwhile, Schmidt said he doubts the bill will pass, but he's thankful for the opportunity.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.