The House's other physician member, Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, debating in favor of the Medicaid cuts bill, HB 260, said Idaho will spend a large portion of its budget on Medicaid. "We are not abandoning anybody," he said. "Are we looking for efficiencies in the system? Yes we are. Are we looking for better ways to deliver health care in the state of Idaho? Yes we are. Is that going to be easy? The answer is no." Providers are being asked to accept less in payment than they have in the past, and they're not happy, he said. "This is not a very popular process that we're going through here with this Medicaid budget."

He said it's "fear-mongering" to suggest that providers will stop seeing Medicaid patients, because Medicaid will expand with national health-care reform, and providers won't want to "walk away" from that increased patient base. He touted the bill's provisions to look into moving to a managed care system, which he said will "bring a better product."

As for the job losses under the bill, Wood said, "There will be some jobs lost, but basically that's just reducing inefficiency in the system. That's not reducing jobs that for some particular reason should be there."

Said Wood, "This is not only about budgets this year, but it's about budgets into the future and how we're going to control costs of a health care system in the United States that's simply unsustainable, and this is the first step in that direction."