$10M Medicaid gap bill dies in Idaho Senate

The Idaho Senate has killed a $10 million plan to provide basic health services to the state’s neediest population.

The proposal would have provided primary care to an estimated 15,000 chronically ill Idahoans who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for health insurance premium subsidies.

A similar proposal died earlier this year in the House after failing to secure enough support. That then prompted Sen. Marv Hagedorn, a Republican from Meridian, to introduce a nearly identical bill to the Senate. Hagedorn’s plan would have been funded from the state’s Joint Millennium Fund – the state’s share of a multibillion-dollar class-action tobacco settlement – rather than use state tax dollars.

However, the Senate voted 13-22 Monday to kill the proposal after multiple members argued they couldn’t support the proposal.