Senate Health & Welfare Committee Chairman Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, told the crowd at today’s Medicaid expansion hearing, “We’re certainly happy that all of you have come today. We have two options. There’s one that I would like to pursue, and that is to have this be an informational hearing only. Let me explain why I feel that way.”

Heider said Gov. Butch Otter and the Department of Health & Welfare have a proposal this year, the Primary Care Access Program, aimed at the 78,000 Idahoans who fall into a coverage gap – they make too much to qualify for Idaho’s limited Medicaid program, and too little to qualify for subsidized health insurance plans through the state’s insurance exchange. “This bill also deals with that same population,” Heider said.

“So if it were to come down to having to choose between the two, it would place us in an awkward situation as a committee, to vote against one of our colleagues or against the gentleman on the 2^nd floor,” legislative speak for the governor.

He said an informational hearing would gather information, but there’d be no motion on the bills.  “That could come at a later time,” Heider said. “The bill is not dead, the bill remains in Sen. Schmidt’s care, not my care.”

With that, the committee took up the first items on its agenda, three proposed bills from the Board of Nursing. Sandra Evans of the board said to murmurs of laughter that she’s never had such a big audience for the Board of Nursing before.