US Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter (file photo)
US Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter has rejected extending Medicaid health coverage to more poor residents under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.
“There’s a lot more work to do, and we face no immediate federal deadline,” Otter told legislators during his State address on Monday.
“We have time to do this right, and there is broad agreement that the existing Medicaid program is broken. So I’m seeking no expansion of those benefits,” he added.
The Republican governor instead asked the Idaho Health and Welfare director to develop a new proposal for changing the state’s system based on the potential costs, savings, and economic impact. Otter hopes to introduce the new plan at the 2014 legislative session.
Otter’s decision contradicts the unanimous recommendation from a task force appointed by him to help the state make use of the available federal funding to broaden the Medicaid.
Otter is the 10th republican governor to reject adding more people to Medicaid, leaving Brian Sandoval of Nevada as the only GOP governor who has agreed on the plan so far.
According to the Washington-based consulting company Advisory Board, sixteen US states and the District of Columbia either intend to participate in Obama’s Medicaid expansion or have already begun.
The health care reform law is supposed to use an expansion of Medicaid as the means to offer health benefits to as many as 17 million people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which was USD 14,856 in 2012.
TE/PKH
