Idahoan citizens are gathering signatures to put Medicaid expansion on the ballot for the Fall of 2018. This could be interesting!
Idaho’s attempt to expand Medicaid by ballot initiative appears to be starting today. https://t.co/Qqm5Jz3jzr
— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) December 7, 2017
Idaho has not expanded Medicaid through the ACA. However it is an actively engaged health policy state:
Idaho is odd. It is a Republican tri-fecta state. It runs its own state based Exchange for the ACA. It has not expanded Medicaid. It has a pair of fascinating waivers that they want to submit to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The first waiver is a Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver. They are not asking for an ACA Medicaid Expansion. Instead, they are asking for the authority to create a high-risk pool in Legacy Medicaid for about 1,500 people who have certain severe, high-cost conditions including hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and certain cancers.
Straight up Medicaid Expansion could still work with the Idaho 1115 waiver to selectively expand Medicaid for certain conditions. The entire package would just cost Idaho less of some of the people who were getting pulled out of the Exchange pool would now be qualified for high federal match Medicaid Expansion instead of normal match Legacy Medicaid.
This is interesting, and if you live in Idaho, help them get the signatures!
Mark-NC
Soooooo – a state that always elects Republicans wants decent things. They get to watch the people they vote for crush the poor, gut food stamps, and continually try to ruin any form of government assistance regarding healthcare.
But they want to expand Medicaid.
Suggestion – if you morons didn’t push the Senate into the Republican voting block you could have good things. Just saying.
NobodySpecial
I’m wondering if we haven’t already reached a tipping point where even killing ACA doesn’t slow down states offering insurance and basically trapping red state legislators into supporting some form of national healthcare.
Matt McIrvin
I just heard that the tax bill removes deductibility for fire and earthquake damage, while retaining it for other types of disasters. Basically, blatantly, “fuck California”–but it seems to me that Idaho and some other Western red states would be collateral damage. They can’t like that.
MomSense
C’mon Idaho! Hopefully your governor won’t try to block you if you win.
rikyrah
Good for them.
Democrats should be working on getting Medicaid expansion on the ballot in every state that hasn’t expanded already.
mai naem mobile
@Matt McIrvin: Oklahoma too. Oklahoma has had a ton of earthquakes because of fracking. Oklahoma,one of the reddest states in the Union.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: I said when the tax bill was first proposed, it should have been titled “The Fuck California Tax Act of 2017”.
@mai naem mobile: Oklahoma has small rattles, usually in the 4 range. It gets your attention but doesn’t do much damage.
Barbara
@Mark-NC: Believe it or not, as a percentage of the overall population, Idaho has more participation in the exchanges than every other state that did not expand Medicaid, with the exception of Florida. If Idaho expanded Medicaid, that would be good for every other state that also expanded Medicaid, mostly blue, but way more than a few red. It would also, I believe, increase the odds that my own recalcitrant (and newly reshaped and hopefully much more fearful) state legislature will expand Medicaid in Virginia. I would rather have progress than sour grapes.
An illuminating article about Medicaid expansion in Idaho: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-in-idaho-tried-to-design-a-better-plan-than-obamacare–and-failed/2017/02/09/80f8354a-dd00-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html?utm_term=.1b76cf47badd
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: Fuck the entire southwest, actually. Given that there is an upcoming Senate election in 2018 in Arizona that should probably be in somebody’s advertising. But really, I hope that doesn’t make it to the final version. It’s completely unjust.
quintillian
More here for those of us in ID. Thanks for highlighting this effort.
Duane
@rikyrah: Missouri hasn’t expanded medicaid. 250,000 people would be eligible. In the 2016 elections, Republican’s gained a strangle hold on the state. Unlike Idaho, we don’t even have an initiative.
Im so disappointed in our state. Missouri didn’t use to be this way.
IdahoFlaneuse
Got a chance to sign the petition this morning.
justawriter
Hey Dave, If you are looking for something to write about, maybe you can comment on this piece by Zach Weinarsmith (his real name) and the impact of Trumpcare on independent creative types. Plus, since it’s a comic, maybe more of the folks around here will actually read it. :)