Idaho has submitted its waiver request to let some people who would be covered by Medicaid expansion stay on private insurance.
The Section 1332 waiver was submitted Monday and, if approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would give people making between 100 and 138 percent of the poverty level the option of getting federal tax credits to buy insurance on the Your Health Idaho state exchange instead of going on Medicaid when expansion kicks in next January.
An estimated 18,000 Idahoans who have exchange insurance now will qualify for expanded Medicaid coverage and would, without a waiver, have to give up their current policies for Medicaid.
The Affordable Care Act originally would have used the threat of withholding Medicaid funding to compel every state to expand Medicaid, but a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made it a state option.
Lawmakers in many Republican-run states, including Idaho, didn’t expand Medicaid.
Last November, Idaho voters approved Medicaid expansion via ballot initiative.
While majority GOP lawmakers approved funding for expansion during the 2019 session, they also passed a bill to request federal waivers to make some changes to the program, including work requirements, letting the state spend some Medicaid money on mental health and substance abuse treatment, and putting restrictions on using outside family planning providers.
The state has yet to submit waiver requests for those other changes.
Work requirements have been approved in numerous states and the Trump administration supports the idea. However, in March, a federal judge blocked similar requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas. (Post Register)
