Lieuteant Governor discusses health insurance in Idaho, recent executive order

Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little stopped in Idaho Falls Monday. KIDK Eyewitness News anchor Todd Kunz talked to him about health insurance in Idaho and his recent executive order.

“Let’s start here because, first of all, I think we need to clear the air. The House Health and Welfare Committee reintroduced a health care idea today. But previously, you and Gov. (Butch) Otter, and the head of insurance, Dean Cameron, you had an executive order proposal awhile back that the federal government said, ‘Uh, not so quickly on that. It might not work.’ Explain, those two are different, right?” asked Kunz.

“Exactly,” said Little.

“How are they different?” asked Kunz.

“Well, the executive order does not need legislation. The executive order asks the director to issue guidance so that we can have plans that are not fully compliant with the affordable care act. The bill that is being discussed is to address those 78,000 people in the gap. They are totally different. The gap are the people that are below the federal tax subsidy from the federal government. These are the people that don’t qualify for it, individuals, small businesses, spouses of people that are covered by some other insurance. And we’re talking about maybe 150,000 to 200,000 people in Idaho that have voluntarily dropped their insurance because of the fact the cost of it has gone up by nearly 100%,” said Little.

“Too expensive and it’s cheaper for them to pay the penalty,” said Kunz.

“And the penalty is going away. Remember, Congress did away with the penalty,” said Little.

“That’s right,” said Kunz.

“So it started off, when insurance was affordable, the penalty wasn’t that much. But as the cost of insurance has doubled, people had said, ‘Well, I’ll pay the penalty.’ Now, they are just dropping out and insurance does not work if it’s only the sick. For insurance to work, we’ve got to have the young and the healthy and it’s got to be affordable and that is what our executive order does,” said Little.

“So let’s focus on your executive order. It was to come up with more alternative plans,” said Kunz.

“Correct, correct,” said Little.

“More affordable options for people to choose from. The federal government said, ‘The Affordable Care Act’, Obamacare, whatever people call it now, ‘Is the law and in Idaho you cannot do that.’ And then you went back there and visited and if I recall you said you understood why they said what they did,” said Kunz.

“Well, the law says it has to be substantially compliant,” said Little.

“OK,” said Kunz.

“Hypothetically, if it 99% or 98 or 90%, doesn’t that qualify as…,” said Little.

“Substantial?” said Kunz.

“Substantial or partial? Because they’ve already got plans. Remember the statement, ‘You can keep your insurance if you like your insurance’?” asked Little.

“Yes,” said Kunz.

“Those plans don’t have near the coverage that the new plans we’re providing. And then there are other plans that are available. And they didn’t quite understand. They hadn’t seen all the details. And so we explained to them the details and showed where there were differences between full compliance with the Affordable Care Act and substantial compliance, and we made great progress,” said Little.

“So then, what are your feelings coming back from Washington as Idaho, you and the governor and Dean Cameron over insurance? What are your feelings moving forward on this possible executive order?” asked Kunz.

“Well, rather than lawyers writing letters back and forth, my goal is to have them have a dialogue and say ‘What about this? What about this?’ You know, if it’s substantially compliant, we’ll say, ‘We’ll be 100% compliant over here and maybe only 80 or 90% compliant over there.’ And that’s what the law says and that’s why we think we’re going to be successful,” said Little.

“In the end, hoping that more people in Idaho have more options to choose from for health insurance,” said Kunz.

“In the end, we’ll make insurance, not only for the people that can buy these plans, but having everybody in the insurance pool, the healthy in the insurance pool, it should bring the cost of healthcare down for everybody. When somebody shows up out here at the hospital, if they’re covered, that means it doesn’t go into yours or somebody else’s bill, and that’s why it’s so important for Idaho,” said Little.

“OK. We appreciate you Lieuteant Governor, stopping by and chatting with us, and clearing that up,” said Kunz.

“Thanks Todd,” said Little.

“Thank you,” replied Kunz.