Health

An Essential Guide To Idaho's Medicaid Program

In the world of social programs, Medicaid is one of the hardest to understand. It’s something of a catch-all program for low-income people, covering broad and divergent needs. Included are healthy children and adults with eligible dependent children, people with disabilities or special health needs, and the elderly. Eligibility is income-based and it varies according the category of qualification for the program.During the state’s 2011 fiscal year, more than three quarters of the funding allocated to the Department of Health and Welfare’s budget went to Medicaid. The program received about $1.55 billion in federal and state funding, with 74 percent of those dollars coming from the federal government.Enrollment in Idaho’s Medicaid program has grown substantially in recent years. The average monthly Medicaid enrollment was fairly stable between 2006 and 2008. It grew by about 3.5 percent. But in the last three years, the program’s enrollment has grown nearly 21 percent. Ballooning from about 185,000 in 2008 to 228,897 in 2012.

Supporters Of Medicaid Expansion Go On Tour In Idaho

Boise State Public Radio News | By Samantha Wright

Published August 23, 2018 at 6:35 AM MDT

The so-called Medicaid Express bus is on a two-week tour of Idaho to promote a “Yes” vote on an initiative to expand Medicaid in the Gem State.

The grassroots group Reclaim Idaho gathered more than 56,000 signatures to put Proposition Two on the ballot in November. Now, the group is traveling around the state in an RV to get people to vote “Yes” on the initiative on election day.

Luke Mayville is one of the co-founders of Reclaim Idaho.

“This will extend health care, it will change the lives of 62,000 people who don’t currently have health insurance because they fall into what we call the gap, the Medicaid Gap,” says Mayville.

The gap includes people who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little for a federal health insurance subsidy.

Opponents of the expansion say it will cost taxpayer dollars. Mayville counters Idahoans are already paying for the uninsured, both in and out of the state.

Speaking on Idaho Matters, Mayville says he’s heard some people say rural Idaho is against the expansion, but, traveling around the state, he says: “It’s entirely the opposite because it’s in rural communities where you find hospitals that are on the brink of closing because they don’t have clients because so many of the people in these rural counties are uninsured.”

Proposition Two goes up for a vote in Idaho November 6th.

Find Samantha Wright on Twitter @samwrightradio

Supporters Of Medicaid Expansion Go On Tour In Idaho

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