After two hours of testimony at this morning’s Health & Welfare listening session, House Health & Welfare Chairman Fred Wood, R-Burley, thanked everyone who spoke. “We understand a lot of Idahoans have gone through a tough time economically. We are coming out of that,” he said. “But we still haven’t solved a lot of the issues that that presented.” He said there were “two main themes” that emerged from today’s testimony. One was “the gap population, the 85,000 people who have … no access to health care. Second, a corollary to that to some extent, as we go forward and try to develop and build a sustainable model of health care in the United States that we can actually afford,” including moves toward managed care and “accountable care,” he said, “There’s going to be some bumps along the way. We hear you. We don’t have a deaf ear.”

He said, “Anybody who observes the politics in the state of Idaho or anywhere else understands that if Sen. Heider and I were king for a day, there would be a whole lot of things that would be a lot different by 5 o’clock tonight. Unfortunately, government doesn’t work that way. We will continue to hear you, we’ll listen to you, and we will strive to try to solve your problems to the best of our abilities.”