Medicaid work requirements bill held in Senate committee

Times-News (Twin Falls, ID)

March 28-- Mar. 28--BOISE -- A bill that would attach work requirements to Medicaid expansion in Idaho will not advance to the Senate floor, a Senate panel decided Wednesday.

Sen. Lee Heider, R-Twin Falls, moved that the Senate Health & Welfare Committee hold House Bill 277 in committee after members heard public testimony overwhelmingly against the bill and a relevant federal court decision broke in the middle of the meeting. The motion passed on a 7-2 vote.

Heider said he made the motion in light of testimony that day from state officials, hospital representatives, and the public. There were roughly 50 people signed up to testify on HB 277, chairman Sen. Fred Martin, R-Boise, said, only one of which was in support of the bill.

If the bill were to pass, it would likely face significant legal challenges: Also on Wednesday, a federal judge struck down similar work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky.

HB 277 would require able-bodied adult Medicaid recipients to work at least 20 hours a week with some exceptions for some people, including parents of children 18 and under, caretakers of disabled adults, pregnant women and college students going to school at least half-time.

The bill would also direct the state to apply for a federal waiver that would require people between 100 and 138 percent of the poverty line to get their insurance from the state exchange instead of from Medicaid, although proponents of the bill previously said the department could apply for a waiver to let that population choose between Medicaid and the state exchange if the department so desired.

While no members of the committee proposed sending the bill to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation, two senators voted in favor of sending HB 277 to the Senate's 14th Order, where changes could be made to it: Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d'Alene, and Sen. Regina Bayer, R-Meridian. Another Medicaid-related bill, sponsored by Martin, is already on the 14th Order; Senate Bill 1204 would attach a voluntary job training program, rather than mandatory work requirements, to Medicaid expansion.

"We're only 25 percent of the Senate, and I think we owe it to the rest of the Senate," Bayer said. "There's nothing wrong with having two bills on amending order."

Martin said he would like to see any possible amendments to House Bill 277 before advancing it to the 14th Order, and voted to hold the bill in committee.

"People ask me, what's going to be the end result of this? And I wish I knew," Martin said. "I feel very strongly that today, House Bill 277 needs to hold in our committee. What's going to happen tomorrow? I don't know."

House Bill 277 previously passed the House on a 45-25 vote. Among south-central Idaho representatives, House Speaker Rep. Scott Bedke (R-Oakley), Rep. Megan Blanksma (R-Hammett), Rep. Lance Clow (R-Twin Falls), Rep. Linda Wright Hartgen (R-Twin Falls), and Rep. Christy Zito (R-Hammett) voted in favor of House Bill 277.House Health and Welfare Chairman Rep. Fred Wood (R-Burley), Rep. Muffy Davis (D-Ketchum), Rep. Clark Kauffman (R-Filer), Rep. Laurie Lickley (R-Jerome), and Rep. Sally Toone (D-Gooding) voted against the bill.