{"id":13009,"date":"2012-11-09T17:33:53","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T00:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=13009"},"modified":"2012-11-12T15:15:34","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T22:15:34","slug":"idaho-should-expand-medicaid-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/11\/09\/idaho-should-expand-medicaid-eligibility\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Unanimous: Idaho Should Expand Medicaid Eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Emilie Ritter Saunders \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

The group considering the Medicaid expansion met at the Capitol today<\/p><\/div>\n

All fourteen members of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter\u2019s Medicaid Expansion Work Group<\/a> arrived at the same opinion this afternoon: Medicaid eligibility should be expanded in Idaho.\u00a0 It was the conclusion of a months-long discussion and research set in motion when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Expanding Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults living at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line is a key component of the federal health care law.\u00a0 But the Supreme Court’s June ruling in effect granted states the right to choose<\/a> whether to adopt the expansion.<\/p>\n

This morning, Gov. Otter’s working group heard a presentation<\/a> from consulting group Milliman, which was hired by the state to assess the costs and savings of the state’s options. The report<\/a> estimates expanding Idaho’s Medicaid program would save the state money between now and the year 2024.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the federal government will at first cover 100 percent of the cost of expansion, phased down to 90 percent by 2020.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That should lower the state\u2019s catastrophic health care and indigent care spending, Milliman concluded, because many Idahoans currently covered by those programs would become Medicaid-eligible.\u00a0 It was one factor that working group members cited in arriving at their decision this afternoon.<\/p>\n

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