Idaho’s Medicaid expansion program could come to an end under a bill passed by House lawmakers Wednesday.
To keep the program alive, 11 requirements must be met by July 2026. Those include implementing work requirements, capping the number of participants and limiting their lifetime eligibility.
If Idaho meets those criteria by the deadline, Medicaid expansion could still be repealed if it falls out of compliance with those requirements at any point in the future.
Idaho budgeted $82.2 million for Medicaid expansion in the current fiscal year. Rep. Wendy Horman (R-Idaho Falls), who co-chairs the state’s budget committee, said that price will continue rising.
“It is not sustainable and nothing we have tried so far has worked,” Horman said.
A little more than half of the roughly 90,000 Idahoans enrolled in Medicaid expansion are employed.
House Assistant Majority Leader Josh Tanner (R-Eagle) said that’s unacceptable.
“Sometimes, you have to rip the Band-Aid off,” said Tanner. “Sometimes you have to tell them, ‘You need to go work.’”
All but one of the bill’s requirements need federal approval.
Idaho and several other states have applied for these waivers. Those have been denied, including by the first Trump administration.
That’s why House Democratic Leader Ilana Rubel (D-Boise) said this bill would be a death sentence for the program.
“I have a better chance of flying a unicorn to the moon and back than we have of keeping Medicaid expansion if House Bill 138 becomes law,” Rubel said.
Rep. Dori Healey (R-Boise) said she doesn’t understand why her Republican colleagues often talk about preserving the state’s sovereignty, though not as it relates to this bill.
“...here we are just handing it back to our federal governments only when it’s convenient for us so that when they don’t approve those 11 waivers, we can say, ‘We tried, but the federal government didn’t approve it. Sorry.’”
State senators will take up the issue next.
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