Family in Medicaid gap says Idaho shouldn’t expand its coverage

In our previous story, you met Suzanne Judd. She and her husband moved to Idaho recently to be near her children and grandchildren. She’s started a seamstress shop, but isn’t turning a profit yet. She is one of 78,000 Idahoans too poor for Obamacare and too young for Medicare, and too wealthy for Medicaid. Idaho does not have the “expanded” Medicaid to cover her. She falls in the gap.

At Local News 8’s invitation, Judd agreed to meet with a licensed enrollment counselor with three years experience with Health West. She helps people find an affordable insurance plan, and we hoped she could help the Judds.

Judd had already been told three times that she and her husband do not qualify for affordable insurance. They do qualify to pay $1,000 a month, but that’s cost prohibitive for them.

After crunching some numbers, counselor Jackie Carlson shared the bad news.

“Because our Medicaid program isn’t expanded, it’s leaving a lot of people including you in the coverage gap. People that make too little to qualify for the credits through the affordable care act, but too much to qualify for Medicaid. So unfortunately, until we expand our Medicaid program it’s leaving us with few options, ” Carlson said.

Despite the fact Judd can’t get insurance, she is of the political belief that nothing in life is free. She is afraid if Idaho expands Medicaid it will become like her recent home state of Minnesota, where taxes just keep going up.

“In Minnesota, our taxes would go up every year by hundreds of dollars. Why? Because they cover everything. They cover everything. We were paying for that. We were paying and paying and paying,” Judd said.

Stephen Weeg, the chairman of the health insurance exchange in Idaho, said he’s not surprised she feels that way. He says Minnesota is very proactive and taxes are higher there. That’s been her experience.

Judd said, “I don’t think I would tell the lawmakers here to expand Medicaid. Even though it would help me. I don’t think it’s a good idea for the economy. I don’t think it’s good for our state. Even though it leaves me out.”

Weeg told us the federal money is already set aside for Idaho to expand Medicaid. The state has it available for 10 years at no cost to the Idaho taxpayer. Right now, that money is being used by the 30 states that have expanded Medicaid.

“It’s part of the federal debt. The amount of money Idaho gets is 1/1,000th of a percent. So take 1,000 balls,” said Weeg. “Take one out. What difference does it make? We’re the one ball that causes everything to collapse? No, we’re a tiny part of that budget process.”

Judd isn’t wrong to worry about starting a program with federal government money that will eventually end. Idaho would have to keep the expanded Medicaid going on its own, and many Idaho leaders worry about that.

Weeg said look at the big picture. “I look at it this way. It’s how we treat each other as human beings. What’s our mark when we leave? I would think we’d be better off helping each other out. We’re a small business state. Employers can’t afford to provide insurance. You can’t do good business if you don’t have good health. We don’t need to have people risk bankruptcy.”

Weeg said people who need the Medicaid expansion should think of it as a hand-up, not a hand-out.

You can read part one of the Judd’s story here.