New version of Insurance Dept. budget passes House on 53-15 vote

The House has approved a new budget bill for the state Department of Insurance, HB 324, without $2.5 million in federal grants for a state health insurance exchange that aroused the ire of some House members and caused the original, Senate-passed budget bill to be pulled from the House floor and sent back to JFAC. The new version, which instead spends $500,000 in state funds to plan for setting up an exchange, passed on a 53-15 vote, with opponents including Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries; it now move to the Senate.