Hearing opens in auditorium on health exchange bill

The Senate Commerce Committee has opened its hearing this afternoon in the Abraham Lincoln Auditorium on HB 248, the House-passed version of the governor’s state health insurance exchange legislation. Committee Chairman John Tippets, R-Montpelier, said the committee has only until 3 p.m. for its hearing today; it’ll hear from David Hensley, Gov. Butch Otter’s chief of staff, to introduce the bill, and from Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, to criticize it; then, the public will be allowed to testify with a 3-minute limit until 2:45.