Idaho News

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.

Should Idaho Expand Medicaid? A Discussion

Boise State Public Radio News | By Staff

Published October 3, 2018 at 11:26 AM MDT

One of the biggest decisions Idahoans will make in the upcoming Nov. 6 election is whether or not to expand Medicaid. Boise State Public Radio News has been following the initiative over the last several months. The ballot initiative has also garnered national attention, including from the journalists at HuffPost. Please join HuffPost and Boise State Public Radio for this conversation about health care in Idaho.

Who: Panelists will include state Rep. Christy Perry, the co-chair of Idahoans for Healthcare; House Majority Caucus Chairman John Vander Woude; community member Donna Scranton; and HuffPost senior reporter Jonathan Cohn. The discussion will be moderated by James Dawson of Boise State Public Radio.

When: Thursday, Oct. 11 at 6:00 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Yanke Family Research Building

The event is part of HuffPost's "Listen to America" RV tour — a two-week journey through five Western states (four of which we didn’t manage to visit last year) to talk about issues affecting communities in California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado. Learn more about the tour and what's happening on the route.

The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited. Please reserve your seat here.

Should Idaho Expand Medicaid? A Discussion

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