Idaho's Medicaid Beast: Who Fed the Monster That's Eating Our State?
by Senator Brian Lenney
Idaho's got a beast on its hands, and it's growing out of control.
This beast is Medicaid, and it's feasting on our budget, ready to gobble up everything in its path. The alarming part? The Idaho Main Street Caucus not only ignored the problem but also fed this monster by voting for HOUSE BILL 369.
While the Governor may be bragging about the Idaho economy… the situation is dire.
Alex Adams, the governor's right-hand man, even admitted that our students are paying the price for this out-of-control spending.
The evidence is clear, and here are the slides to prove it:
Other states like Nebraska and Utah, which have managed care Medicaid, are also seeing their costs go through the roof. The real problem here isn't how we manage it; it's how much we're spending.
The Cato Institute made this point explicitly in a submitted comment to the 2023 Medicaid Managed Care Task Force:
"Managed care providers often control costs by imposing copayments and deductibles on plan members. These forms of patient responsibility make members think twice before seeing a provider or visiting a hospital emergency room. But, per federal law, copayments and deductibles are generally not permitted under Medicaid."
And while The Idaho Freedom Caucus tried to stop this train wreck, all but ONE member of the Main Street Caucus voted to push it through.
Now, what can we do to tame this Medicaid beast before it devours Idaho completely?
Here are some simple ways to do it:
Kick Out the Folks Who Don't Belong: If they're not eligible for Medicaid, they shouldn't be on it. Let's clean up the list.
Check What We're Paying For: We need a full look at what healthcare providers are charging. No more shady billing.
Control What Gets Prescribed: Let's decide for ourselves what drugs are covered, not let someone else tell us what we have to pay for.
We're facing a crisis, and we can't just sit back and watch the Medicaid beast continue to grow.
Town halls and taskforces are window-dressing.
What we need to do is slay the beast.
It's time to stand up, call out those who led us into this mess, and bring some common-sense solutions to the table.
We need to act now, or this beast will eat all of Idaho.
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I have been fighting Medicaid Expansion since it was proposed in the legislature because of the history in other states that have been overwhelmed with costs that were never projected and have reeked havoc with their budgets. I have written our legislators testified at committee hearings and condemned taking on this expansion as all of the people who said this would be good for Idaho have been wrong. The only ones who have been helped by this expansion are the non profit hospitals who's transfer payments have increased substantially because of this government subsidy. I said years ago that this expansion would be abused and it has certainly come to pass as we find huge numbers of unqualified persons signed on to this program. I also said that once you acceplt a program like this it is just about impossible to close it down so we are stuck with the remnants of a misguided referendum by those who said this would be good for the state. I often wonder how many of those who promoted this program have been benefiting from it financially. Idaho has taken the wrong fork in the road for medical care and it is a one way road to Bankruptcy. I'm not sure you can fix this problem as it has been and still is supported by IACI and the two major hospitals in our state which pretty much tell our legislators what to do and when to do it. The corporations have been increasing premiums for their healthcare plans and reducing payments for benefits while the hospitals have been raising prices and sucking up most of the transfer payments. It seems to me that the only real beneficiaries have been the Corporations and the Hospitals. Too bad there are no do overs in government once something like this has been accepted.
I totally agree and totally see this playout unfortunately usually to the less fortunate and poor. I've seen scammers or take advantage of the system and get everything they want on the opposite I've seen people who need it are justified in getting the help And don't even going through the right channels proper system. One person who scams a system hurts us all. I grew up around disabled people and understand the need for it. When they start giving it out to people who really don't need it and can work the one affects us all. I suffer from several elements got a bad doctor and it totally almost ruined me. I choose to push forward for what's right as a result I've lost a lot of people who I thought were friend's. Doing the right thing usually isn't the easy thing. As a citizen of this great state of Idaho I've always appreciated I know running a balance budget. I also believe it is a path to socialistic type of living. Freedom is rare and we must keep it. Robert Lester Junior