Politics & Government

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.

Judge Halts Idaho Medicaid Cuts After ACLU Lawsuit

Boise State Public Radio News | By Associated Press

Published March 26, 2014 at 2:25 PM MDT

A U.S. District Court judge issued an injunction Tuesday to halt deep cuts to Medicaid and restore about $16 million in assistance to Idaho's developmentally delayed adults.

The decision lets an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Idaho lawsuit on behalf of disabled Idahoans proceed as a class-action case.

That opens it up to more people who lost some their Medicaid dollars when the program was slashed in 2011.

Judge B. Lynn Winmill cited cases of severely mentally disabled Idahoans that can no longer afford necessary therapy and other care in his decision.

The injunction applies to everyone who goes through Medicaid's individual budgeting process for adults with developmental disabilities in Idaho.

Those people will return to the highest level of funding they have received since July 1, 2011.

A statement from the ACLU says the constitutional violations the judge found in Idaho's Medicaid program exist in nearly all of Idaho’s Health and Welfare programs. The statement goes on to say there will be more lawsuits.

“There definitely are other issues the Department of Health and Welfare must look at very closely, says the ACLU's Leo Morales. "And potentially the court may find them unconstitutional as well.”

Judge Halts Idaho Medicaid Cuts After ACLU Lawsuit

You make stories like this possible.