Hearing ends with no vote or motion; Sen. Schmidt says, ‘It’s a start’

Senate Health & Welfare Chairman Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, has ended this afternoon’s hearing on two proposed Medicaid expansion bills, without any motion or vote. “Thank you, Sen. Schmidt, for bringing this bill, for printing this bill, for hearing this bill,” Heider said. “Thank you, the public, for coming today and listening to this information-gathering session, and with that, we are dismissed.”

Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, sponsor of the bills, when asked what he thought of the outcome, said, after a pause, “It’s a good start.” He added, “Sometimes to get some things done, you’ve got to make some decisions, and I hope we can move forward and start making some decisions.”

In his closing comments, Schmidt said, “I really want to thank the committee for the time, and you can see that there are lots of people. You could fill a couple days with the testimony that is here to speak before you.”

He said, “You heard of tragedies today. I serve on the CAT fund, I serve in emergency rooms. I review cases for the CAT fund, 200, 300 every couple months. And they are tragic. But I agree, I’m not sure you should be making public policy choices based on tragedy. You should be making public policy choices based on good policy. Tragedies do happen. And if we can make good policy to prevent them, that’s our job.” He said, “I believe we have the foundation for good policy laid. This is the commitment we need to make to fulfill that.”