(Lewiston, ID) By one vote, the Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday advanced a bill critics said would repeal Medicaid expansion.
House Bill 138, by Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, requires Idaho to enact 11 Medicaid policy changes or repeal Medicaid expansion — a policy that lets more low-income Idahoans be eligible for the health insurance assistance program.
Idaho needs approval from the federal government to implement many of the policy changes — like work requirements, capping expansion enrollment, and kicking people off Medicaid expansion after three years — that Redman’s bill would require.
If any of those policies aren’t in effect by July 2026, the bill would repeal Medicaid expansion, a law passed in 2018 by nearly 61% of Idaho voters.
“Today, you may hear testimony saying that this bill is a sneaky way to repeal Medicaid expansion. And that’s simply not the case,” Redman told the committee as the hearing began. “This bill is taking Medicaid expansion, putting accountability measures in place and cutting waste to make sure that the state is being the best stewards as we can be for taxpayer funds.”
But in an analysis of the bill, Idaho Voices for Children found several of those provisions have either never been attempted or approved, even during President Donald Trump’s first term.
“To me, this is the bullets in the gun to kind of force them a little bit, right?” Redman told the committee in response to a question. “I think without that, I do think it could sit on a desk and not have any attention to it.”
About 89,300 Idahoans are enrolled in Medicaid expansion, according to December figures from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Idaho House committee rejected similar bill last year
Last year, the same House committee halted a similar Medicaid expansion reform-or-repeal bill by Redman — after wide public opposition that cast the bill as an attempt to repeal Medicaid expansion with more steps.
This year, Redman’s bill was also met with wide opposition in public testimony — from doctors, patients on Medicaid and others — that largely focused on the same point.
But since last year, the committee’s makeup has changed significantly, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. And Redman says the federal government — under the Trump administration — is likely to approve the sideboards his bill demands.
Dr. Brandon Mickelsen, representing the board of directors for the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians, urged the committee to oppose the bill.
Many rural hospitals in Idaho are at risk of closing due to financial reasons, he said.
“These medical costs won’t go away if you repeal Medicaid expansion,” Mickelsen said. “You will create enormous costs for rural hospitals and local communities.”
Freshman lawmakers largely support advancing the bill
In response to critical questions from committee members about how the bill wouldn’t effectively repeal Medicaid expansion, Redman maintained he believed the federal government would likely approve Idaho’s requests for sideboards through waivers.
And he stressed that the bill is intended to reform — not repeal — Medicaid expansion.
Some lawmakers weren’t convinced the bill would avoid repeal.
“This is not a reform bill. This will kill Medicaid expansion” said Rep. Marco Erickson, R-Idaho Falls, the committee’s vice chair. “And those rural clinics will be the number one first places to go.”
But many of the committee’s members who are serving their first year in the Legislature joined Redman and committee Chairman John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, to pass a motion on an 8-7 vote to send the bill to the full House floor, rejecting a motion to hold the bill in committee.
Two freshman lawmakers who supported advancing the bill stressed the bill ought to go before the entire Idaho House of Representatives.
Noting that the committee members were largely new to serving in the Legislature, Rep. Tanya Burgoyne, R-Pocatello, said, “I think it would be irresponsible of us not to turn to the institutional knowledge that is here in the body of the House — that has been here that has a lot more insight than us eight freshmen.”
The Idaho House “is responsible for approving the appropriation for this … expansion for Medicaid as a whole,” said Rep. Lucas Cayler, R-Caldwell.
This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.
