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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Work group modifies Idaho Medicaid proposal

Kimberlee Kruesi Associated Press

BOISE – An Idaho work group has tweaked its recommendations on expanding Medicaid eligibility in a last-minute effort to make its plan more politically palatable to lawmakers.

Work group facilitator Corey Surber said the 15-member group approved a hybrid model Friday. The group had finalized a proposal to Gov. Butch Otter in August. However, lawmakers warned that the proposal’s blanket support of Medicaid expansion would fail to even be considered when the Republican-controlled Legislature convenes in January.

Under the newly approved plan, adults earning 100 percent to 138 percent of the poverty level may purchase private insurance on Idaho’s health insurance marketplace using federal dollars.

Adults below the poverty line, Idaho’s lowest-income participants, would be provided Medicaid coverage.

The previous plan expanded Idaho’s Medicaid eligibility to adults earning 138 percent of the poverty line.

Yet critics of the August proposal said it would create a new category of nearly 25,000 adults who qualified for private plans on the state-based exchange but would be moved into the Medicaid coverage plan.

“We are trying to figure out something that will work out not just practically but also politically,” said Surber, who is also executive director of health and public policy at St. Alphonsus Health System in Boise.

This is the third recommendation the group has supported in an effort to cover nearly 77,000 residents who don’t currently qualify for Medicaid.