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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Idaho insurance exchange chief: YHI customers never had to worry, due to ‘wise decision’ 3 years ago

Customers of Idaho’s state health insurance exchange, YourHealthIdaho.org, weren’t among those worrying about what the U.S. Supreme Court would decide today in King v. Burwell, according to a statement from the Idaho exchange’s executive director, “because of the wise decision our lawmakers made three years ago” to set up Idaho’s state exchange. The Supreme Court’s ruling today preserves tax credits to subsidize health insurance for consumers who don’t have state-based insurance exchanges; the case had threatened to remove the subsidies for those buyers. But Idaho customers' tax credits weren't threatened by the case. Here’s the full statement from Pat Kelly, YourHealthIdaho executive director:

“No matter what the U.S. Supreme Court decided today, Your Health Idaho customers were always going to continue to have access to tax credits to help pay for health insurance costs because we are a state-based exchange. While other states spent a lot of time worrying about what the Supreme Court might decide, we were able to focus on taking care of our customers because of the wise decision our lawmakers made three years ago. Governor C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter and state representatives knew from the very beginning the best way to serve Idahoans was to ensure we maintained control of our exchange and didn’t let important health insurance decisions fall into the hands of the federal government.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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