The Senate Health & Welfare Committee debated for close to an hour this afternoon before voting to kill Rep. Janet Trujillo’s catastrophic fund bill, HB 535. The measure, which wouldn’t have taken effect until 2016, sought to exclude from the state’s medical indigency and catastrophic care program anyone who qualified to buy health insurance through the state insurance exchange, in an attempt at several million in savings in the program that covers the catastrophic medical bills of those who can't afford to pay them. “I was very glad that we had the discussion that we had,” said Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, a physician, “about how we’re going to provide coverage for people in Idaho.”

 “But in essence, her bill had an enacting date of 2016,” he said, “which, if we’re going to do something like that, we can pass that bill next year.” Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, was the only committee member to support passing the measure, which earlier passed the House.