An Idaho House panel has spiked the funding proposal to Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's proposed alternative to Medicaid expansion, effectively killing the governor's plan to provide basic health services to 78,000 Idahoans who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but also don't qualify for health insurance subsidies.
The House State Affairs Committee voted 6-8 Monday to reject a proposal that would partially fund the estimated $30 million plan—dubbed the Idaho Primary Care Access Program. Two Democratic members voted alongside six other Republican members voted against the measure.
A separate House panel had introduced legislation last week that would create the program's structure, but it did not include a funding mechanism.
House Health and Welfare Chairman Fred Wood, a Republican, says the rejected bill would have funneled $19 million from the state's Millennium Fund, which comes from a nationwide tobacco settlement. It was still unknown where the remainder of the bill's funding would have come from.
