After much discussion, lawmakers on the Legislature’s interim working group on alternatives for closing the state’s health coverage gap have decided their report to the Legislature shouldn’t include specifics, and instead should focus broadly on alternatives. “If we go down the road of getting granular like some of us have talked about here, we could be here ‘til midnight,” said Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley. “It’s not the charge here to come up with any legislation. It’s not the charge here to come up with funding. ... We have said that there is a problem and it needs to be solved, and the ‘17 Legislature ought to solve it. I think that if we try to prescribe any solution whatsoever, then those that are opposed to that will immediately reject the findings of the committee.”

With that, the committee embarked on wordsmithing a draft final report presented by legislative staffers, changing a word here, adding a phrase there. Now, they’re taking a 15-minute break to compile the changes into the final report.

The draft says there are two potential methods to provide health care to individuals in the coverage gap: Expanding Medicaid, and a state-funded program to provide care to some individuals in the gap, which wouldn’t be comprehensive. Give the complications of both, the draft report recommends:

1 – A policy to provide health care to the gap population should be enacted by the 2017 Legislature.

2 – If there is legislation to expand Medicaid in any way, it should include a conditional sunset clause should federal policy change.

3 – Any state-funded program should include a direct care component for primary and preventive care.

4 – The Millennium Fund and the state’s general fund should be tapped for any state costs.

Said  Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, the panel's co-chair, "Doing nothing is not an option."

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