Dept. of Insurance budget set without health exchange grant

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has approved a budget for the state Department of Insurance for next year that leaves out a $20 million-plus federal grant to plan for a state-run health insurance exchange. “There’s no mention of anything like that in there,” Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, told her fellow JFAC members at an early-morning workshop before this morning’s vote, joking that they can stop looking for it. The Department of Insurance budget for next year includes no state general funds; it totals $8.2 million in federal and dedicated funds, a 1.9 percent increase from this year.

Jaquet said later that she was just joking with other JFAC members. She said it “wouldn’t be appropriate” to include that in the budget until the germane committees, the governor and the legislative leadership figure out where they’re headed on the issue.