The Senate has begun debating HB 260, the House-passed bill to cut $108 million out of the state's Medicaid program, including $35 million in state general funds. "Suggestions were received and heard, adjustments were made," Senate Health & Welfare Chairwoman Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, told the Senate in her opening debate. "Our choices were few - the elimination of entire programs, or, with a sharp scalpel, trimming programs. ... Our choice was the latter - trimming services." She said no individual will lose eligibility for Medicaid because of the bill.

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, a physician, spoke against the bill. "It is not simply that our choices will harm people," he said. "I do not say we should spend money we don't have." But, he said, "We can ... do it differently. This bill does not chart that course. ... Despite hints otherwise, it is truly more of just the same." Schmidt said, "My analogy for thsi bill is that it is like saving money on your car by not changing the oil. We will pay more later."

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, Senate Health & Welfare vice chair, noted, "A good share of the reductions in this bill don't come from patients. ... They come from the hospitals and the nursing homes." Some of the business changes in the bill, she said, won't hurt patients. "By and large it just makes it fair for the taxpayers and fair for eveyone else. ... There are a number of really good steps forward in this legislation that I think we need to realize."

Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, said Medicaid must be cut to balance the budget, and he dismissed concerns that the cuts bill will eliminate hundreds of jobs across the state. "Providing jobs is not the goal of the Medicaid program of Idaho," he said.