For more than 86,000 Idahoans, health care reform has meant new, affordable options for health coverage, with an average premium, after federal subsidies, of just $65 a month. “Clearly, we offer a service that was needed,” said Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho, Idaho’s state insurance exchange. “Eighty-six thousand people in Idaho certainly demonstrates a need for what we do.” But for another 78,000 Idahoans, health care reform has brought nothing but unfulfilled promises. They make too little to qualify for the subsidized coverage, which was envisioned to serve people making 100-400 percent of the federal poverty level. They make too much to enroll in Idaho’s Medicaid program, which mostly covers children and the disabled. They’re part of a coverage gap that affects residents of states like Idaho that didn’t accept federal funds to expand Medicaid to cover low-income, nondisabled adults/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.

Question: Do you suppose the ruling Republican Party would pay attention to the health-care needs of lower-income Idahoans if more of them voted?