Legislators slam Medicaid expansion at forum
DEVIN WEEKS/Press Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene, discusses a tax credit bill that would offer scholarships to help parents pay for alternative and private schooling for their students as he answers a question during a legislative town hall Saturday.
Rep. John Green, R-Post Falls, takes the mic Saturday morning during the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee town hall in the Post Falls Senior Center. About 100 people attended to hear legislators talk about topics such as abortion, wolf management and Medicaid expansion. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
POST FALLS — The topic of Medicaid expansion took up a good chunk of the conversation Saturday morning during a legislative town hall in the Post Falls Senior Center.
Local legislators called it “a disaster” and “financial suicide,” among other things, as they responded to an audience question that asked, “How many legislators here today are planning to support Medicaid expansion as written? … And putting personal ideology aside, why would you propose a bill that directly contradicts the will of the people who voted 61 percent statewide to expand Medicaid to those families in Idaho that need health coverage the most?”
Post Falls freshman legislator Tony Wisniewski, who holds Seat B in District 3, said his district told him not to vote for the expansion, and that the opinion of his district reflects his own.
“Medicaid at the state level right now takes a bigger portion of our budget than the K-12 education system. I don’t know if many people know that,” he said. “To go to Medicaid expansion is just going to bankrupt us. This is just not a good idea. We’re finding more and more doctors that are refusing to see Medicare and Medicaid patients. We’re already faced with a doctor shortage as well as a teacher shortage, but that’s a different issue. We’re going to force the state to create more positions for doctors, and this just becomes a circular argument for the point that we’re going to basically kill a profession and just ruin our healthcare system.”
“It was a bad deal to begin with, and it’s still a bad deal,” said Sen. Don Cheatham, Post Falls.
About 100 citizens attended the two-hour town hall, which was presented by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. Questions were collected from attendees and read to the legislative panel by KCRCC first vice chair Don Bradway, who opened the session by encouraging people to respect the ideas of others and keep the conversation civil.
Inquiries ranged from education funding and the option to exempt children from vaccinations to anti-abortion legislation, management of Idaho’s wolf population and Marsy's Law, which is legislation that advocates for equal rights for crime victims.