Idaho’s Medicaid Division budget to go above $3 billion

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The budget for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's Division of Medicaid will surpass $3 billion for the first time, state officials said Monday, with more than $2 billion of that coming from the federal government.

Administrator Matt Wimmer also told the Legislature's budget-setting committee that Medicaid expansion was going well with about 62,000 people having signed up since Jan. 1.

The department's Division of Welfare also appeared before the budget committee. Division officials there say that about 320,000 of Idaho's 1.75 million residents are receiving some type of help through Medicaid, food stamps or child care assistance. That's about 18.3% of the state's population.

The committee later this month will start setting budgets for fiscal year 2021, which starts this summer.