Update: Health care bill dead
COEUR d’ALENE — Just before adjourning for the year, the Idaho Senate amended a bill which, if the House concurs today, could move one step closer to providing health care to Idahoans in the Medicaid gap.
The House will hear the amendment this morning when it reconvenes at 9 a.m. Pacific time today.
On Wednesday the House passed two health care bills that were transmitted to the Senate for approval.
On Thursday the Senate took up the first bill, House Concurrent Resolution 63, which would have created an interim committee to draft a Medicaid expansion waiver that would allow the state to access Medicaid funding for a state-customized managed care system to help the 78,000 Idahoans caught in the gap where they can neither afford private insurance nor qualify for subsidized insurance under the state exchange.
The gap became apparent when Idaho created the state health care exchange in lieu of the federally run health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act.
Several senators expressed their frustration with a bill that would simply study the issue that two governor-appointed committees already have studied and recommended expanding Medicaid.
After some discussion the committee voted to kill the bill.
Then the committee took up the second bill, HB 644, which appropriated $5 million in grants to community health centers to provide some level of health care until the Legislature could address the issue more substantially next year. After some debate, the Senate Health and Welfare committee voted to amend the bill to give the director of the state Health and Welfare agency the authority to begin the process of seeking a waiver from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Service, which could eventually allow the state to access Medicaid funding to provide more than just primary care for the gap population.
The bill passed the Senate 27 to 8 despite some opposition.
Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, said he was not going to support the bill.
“I can’t find any reason to vote for this amendment," he said. "I think its only purpose is to set us up for Medicaid expansion.”
Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, also voted against the bill.
“I am afraid it is a way to open the door to Medicaid expansion,” Nonini said, adding he believes the House may kill the bill this morning.
While the bill does not commit Idaho to anything, it does begin the 18-month process of securing a waiver if that is the will of the Legislature next year.
Some of the language was lifted from a bill that Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, sought support for before the House introduced the two that passed on Wednesday.
Malek successfully ushered the $5 million appropriation bill, which is a companion bill to HB 644, through both the House and Senate on Thursday.
Neither Souza nor Malek could be reached for comment Thursday evening.
In other business, Nonini successfully ushered a bill through the process at the last minute which, if the governor signs it, will give submersible pump users two years to work out compliance issues with the state Office of Building Safety.
The state is planning to phase out use of submersible well pumps in open water due to the risk of electric shock.
The two-year window will give affected parties time to work out compliance criteria for the pumps to bring them back into compliance.
“It sailed through the House unanimously and it sailed through the Senate unanimously,” Nonini said. “I think even the majority leader had nice things to say about it.”
Souza was also instrumental in ushering a controversial urban renewal bill through the process, but much like the Medicaid bill, it is still in play in the House where it awaits a final vote concurring with a Senate amendment.