Driving home his message
(Photo by CAROLINE LOBSINGER) Reclaim Idaho’s Luke Mayville checks out the revised slogan on the group’s RV that he’s driving down to Boise for a Monday rally. The rally, which Mayville hopes will attract several hundred people, is being held to call on legislators to enact Medicaid expansion as voters approved and without restrictions.
CAROLINE LOBSINGER/Hagadone News Network Reclaim Idaho’s Luke Mayville checks out the revised slogan on the group’s RV that he’s driving to Boise for a Monday rally calling on legislators to enact Medicaid expansion as voters approved, and without restrictions. Mayville, who didn’t want to wipe out signatures written by supporters during the original cross-state journeys, joked he made the change with less than a dollar’s worth of tape.
SANDPOINT — Friday, Reclaim Idaho’s Luke Mayville took off for one last drive across Idaho in the group’s forest green RV covered stem-to-stern with signatures and messages from supporters.
But first he had to shovel about a thousand pounds of snow and ice off the roof.
The goal is simple — to make sure Idaho legislators honor the will of the voters and enact the bill as written and fund the new law.
“We want to send a very clear message that we’re still here,” Mayville said Friday, shortly before hopping into the RV and beginning the 10-hour trek to Boise for a Monday rally at the state capitol. “We want to remind our legislators that Medicaid expansion won a majority of votes in 29 out of 35 legislative districts and in nearly every county in Idaho.”
Voters approved the measure, Prop 2, on Nov. 6, which expanded Medicaid eligibility to everyone under 138 percent of the poverty line. However, the measure was challenged shortly after the election by Coeur d’Alene resident Brent Regan in his capacity of chairman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, alleging the measure is unconstitutional. Oral arguments in the case were heard by the Idaho Supreme Court on Tuesday.
While there has been no recent talk among legislators of adding major restrictions to the new Medicaid expansion law, Mayville said supporters across the state wanted to make sure voters’ wishes are followed.
With the law approved by roughly 61 percent of voters, legislators are obligated to fund Medicaid expansion without restrictions, Mayville said. Fortunately, early talk of major changes to the law approved by voters seems to be subsiding.
“They seem to be getting the message from the experience of other states that restrictions like work requirements have been ineffective and very wasteful of taxpayers’ dollars,” he added. “We see very hopeful signs that our legislators understand that the most fiscally responsible form of Medicaid expansion is the straightforward, simple Medicaid expansion that the voters called for.”
With the issue coming up, Mayville said supporters wanted to remind legislators the measure has strong support throughout the state and across party lines.
“We want our legislators to know that supporters of Medicaid expansion didn’t just vote for this, they are willing to defend it by traveling to the capitol,” he added.
Several hundred supporters are expected at Monday’s rally as word spread they could make a “big positive difference by continuing to advocate for health coverage,” Mayville said.
While frustrating at times to have to remind the Legislature that Medicaid expansion is the will of the people, the Sandpoint native said supporters also understand the movement has never been this close to securing health care coverage for 62,000 Idahoans who otherwise wouldn’t have it.
“For so many years, people all across the state have understood that we have an urgent health care crisis,” Mayville said. “For whatever reason, the Legislature did not act. Finally the voters have stood up and taken the matter into their own hands. Legislators can now breathe a sigh of relief that the issue has been resolved. Their job now is simply to fund the new law and move on to other priorities.”
Their only obligation at this point is to appropriate the $10.8 million — one-quarter of 1 percent of the state budget — as determined by the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, needed to implement Medicaid expansion. Gov. Brad Little has called for that money to be drawn from the Millennium Fund, which is Idaho’s tobacco settlement endowment, something with which the committee that oversees that fund agrees.
“All our legislators have to draw that small amount of funding from the Millennium Fund and that’s all it will take to honor the will of the voters,” he added.
Before he hit the road, Mayville said there was one last thing he had to do — edit the slogan taped across the side of the van. Instead of “Vote yes for Medicaid,” it now reads “61 percent voted yes for Medicaid.” While he debated several other slogans, in the end, the decision was simple.
“Ultimately I went with the slogan that didn’t require too much new tape,” he said, chuckling. “This just required adding a ‘D’ here and changing a number there.”