Molly Messick was StateImpact Idaho's broadcast reporter until May 2013. Prior to joining StateImpact and Boise State Public Radio, she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. She is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Idaho lawmakers are in Boise this week ahead of the 2013 legislative session, which starts January 7. Beginning this afternoon, there’s a new legislator orientation for the more than 30 percent of lawmakers who are newcomers.
Legislators meet behind closed doors Wednesday evening to determine leadership positions for the coming session. The contest for the top job in the House is closely watched, with current Speaker Lawerence Denney (R-Midvale) and Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke (R-Oakley) vying for the post. Continue Reading →
We published a post last week about the effects of the Affordable Care Act on Idaho’s uninsured. In it, we mentioned that federal tax credits will be available to people purchasing insurance through health insurance exchanges, if their incomes are less than four times the federal poverty level. For a family of four, 400 percent of the 2012 federal poverty level is $92,200.
After that post went up, we got a tweet from a reader asking about the subsidy thresholds for other family sizes. Here you go:
Karen Early is the director of corporate communications for Blue Cross of Idaho, the state's largest insurer.
One of Blue Cross of Idaho’s new television commercials opens with a chirpy jingle. “You’re protected in the sun, you’re protected when it rains,” the song begins. The pitch is clear: this is the insurer for you, no matter your lifestyle.
For Blue Cross of Idaho, this is more than an advertisement. It’s a big step.
“This is the first time the company has ever, in its 65 plus years of existence, actually gone out with a brand campaign to explain who we are,” says Karen Early, the company’s director of corporate communication.
She says it’s a direct response to the Affordable Care Act. “Literally, the day after the bill passed was the day we all looked at each other and said, ‘Things are going to change a lot,’ Early says. Continue Reading →
Blue Cross of Idaho's "Blue Hat" campaign is the company's first-ever effort to build brand awareness among individual consumers.
The federal health care law often called Obamacare is moving steadily forward, despite pushback in conservative states like Idaho. In addition to everything else, the law means big changes for the individual insurance market. As of 2014, millions more people will be shopping for health insurance for themselves and their families. And insurers are already jockeying for that new business.
State leaders have yet to determine whether Idaho will establish a state-based health insurance exchange or expand Medicaid eligibility. But there is quite a lot we do know about the likely effects of the federal health care law in Idaho.
About 46 percent of Idahoans get insurance through their employers, but that’s not the part of the market that will be most significantly affected by the law. “The most dramatic changes that happen under the Affordable Care Act happen in the individual market,” explains Karen Pollitz of the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Through its online health insurance marketplaces, called exchanges, along with its subsidies and penalties, the law seeks to draw many more people into purchasing insurance in the individual market.
Aberdeen's mayor, Morgan Anderson, at a local American Legion Auxiliary event earlier this year
Tomorrow, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and a half-dozen state officials will visit a small eastern Idaho town of fewer than 2,000 people. That town – Aberdeen – will be Idaho’s Capital for a Day. Mayor Morgan Anderson says he hopes to use some of the time to explain to state leaders why he’s concerned for his town’s very survival.
StateImpact first wrote about Aberdeen just over a year ago, when J.R. Simplot Company announced plans to close three of its existing potato processing plants and replace them with a new facility in Caldwell. Simplot touts the new plant’s efficiency, but one result of the closures will be the loss of more than 500 jobs. Nearly 300 of those employees report to work in Aberdeen, and many live in the town.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday granted states more time to decide whether to create their own health insurance exchanges.
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said today that he will confer with Idaho legislators and try to get more information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) before coming to a decision about whether the state should build its own health insurance exchange. The state’s other options are to leave it to the federal government, or pursue a federal-state partnership.
Idaho is one of a dozen states that is still studying its options with respect to health insurance exchanges.
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter got a reprieve, if he wants it. Friday, Nov. 16 was supposed to be the final day for states to tell the federal government whether they will set up their own health insurance exchanges.
It was a deadline established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to ensure the exchanges are online by 2014. But Republican governors asked for more time, and yesterday they got it.
The Idaho Legislature does not convene again until early next year, so this decision still falls to the governor. And if Gov. Otter follows the conclusions reached by his working group last month and determines that Idaho should build its own exchange, there’s little doubt the Legislature will also have to get on-board. Continue Reading →
Now, that list is itself producing consternation. As The Spokesman-Review’s Scott Maben writes of the bonuses that will be distributed in the Coeur d’Alene School District:
Teachers will receive bonuses of up to $4,142 in the coming weeks, though some who teach at underperforming schools will receive nothing, even if they’re among the best educators in a school district. — The Spokesman-Review
Critics of the three defeated education laws known as Students Come First have been quick to make this observation: that the bonuses appear to reward well-off schools. Continue Reading →
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna held a roundtable meeting with Idaho media yesterday. It was the first time Luna had spoken publicly since voters rejected the Students Come First laws.
When the superintendent did at last take questions yesterday, his tone was conciliatory. He stressed the importance of all sides finding agreement.
“I think it’s critical that we work together and identify parts of the legislation that have support amongst all stakeholders,” Luna said.
That message isn’t wholly different from the one expressed by those who campaigned against the laws. Continue Reading →
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