Idaho lawmakers open their session today in Boise
Idaho’s legislature convenes for the start of its 2025 session today. The highlight will be Governor Brad Little’s State of the State address before a joint meeting of the House and Senate.
Little told reporters on Friday that he will remind legislators about the progress made on rebuilding infrastructure using pandemic relief money and other federal sources. But he said that money is all gone now.
He also said attempts to unravel Medicaid expansion would be complicated and potentially cost taxpayers even more if counties have to once again pick up the tab for indigent health costs.
"What may look like a temporary savings may not be a temporary savings if we have to go back to [covering indigent medical care] on your county taxes," Little said.
Little said he thinks the incoming Trump administration will also be more likely to approve Idaho’s Medicaid waiver applications to restrict eligibility or add new program requirements.
He also seemed open to expanding exceptions within the state’s strict abortion ban to not solely allow for the procedure if it threatens the life of the mother.
"I am always concerned as a long, always pro-life person, about basically the reproductive long-term health of the mother and are we addressing that," Little said. "And I think the Idaho legislature — most of them — are interested in that also."
House Speaker Mike Moyle said he wants to wait to modify that law until the U.S. Supreme Court issues an opinion in a case that argues Idaho code violates federal emergency treatment regulations.
Another topic Little mentioned in his call with reporters is education in the Gem State, including his controversial Launch Idaho program, which has paid for tuition and fees for thousands of graduating high school students to move on to college and workforce training programs.
“I think it's going to pay off for a long, long time. It's going to pay off in the availability of a workforce for a modernizing state," he said. "It's going to help all our industries. It's obviously going to help us in the housing area because one of the critical components are plumbers, electricians, contractors."
The governor is scheduled to speak at noon Pacific time.
NIC workforce training program expands to Sandpoint
Starting this month, people interested in additional job-related training in the northern Idaho panhandle can turn to North Idaho College’s satellite campus in Sandpoint.
The college’s Workforce Training Center is offering programs primarily in health care this season, with other industries to follow.
Colby Mattila, NIC’s Executive Director of Workforce and Economic Development, told SPR News that unlike formal academic programs, the college’s job training menu is available to the general public.
“Our program is targeted for everyone, from high school seniors graduating to people looking to get retrained on up until whenever they want to go back to school,” Mattila said. “It's for people that might feel that they want to upskill, they're not happy in their current jobs and they need some new training, or they feel like they missed their boat and they want to go back and learn a new skill.”
The college chose to expand its workforce training programs in part because it has a mandate to serve five north Idaho counties.
“Sandpoint was a logical fit for us to move into,” Mattila said. “[NIC] had a space there that we could start teaching out of, and provide more training to those northern counties that were definitely underserved.”
The training sessions generally end with a certification useful for finding or advancing employment, the college said, though the exact end product differs from program to program. Mattila said NIC will examine the expansion’s effectiveness by looking at program enrollment and job placement for those who have completed their training.
New year brings new protections against surprise billing
When a health crisis is serious enough to require transport by ambulance, the person on the stretcher often isn’t thinking about whether or not the trip is insured. But being aided by an out-of-network ambulance company can lead to bills totaling hundreds or thousands of dollars.
But under a law that took effect this month, Washington patients are now protected from surprise billing from out-of-network ambulance providers. Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said the ambulance providers must bill a person’s health insurer directly, and that the cost-sharing amount will be no higher than if the patient were transported by an in-network ambulance.
The Insurance Commissioner’s office said Washington is now among 15 states that offer similar protections for ground ambulance patients. Federal law does not currently include such protections.
Another new change requires local governments that have set rates for ground ambulance service publish those rates to a public database.
There were 299 ground ambulance services in Washington in 2023, according to a report from the Insurance Commissioner’s office. They included private companies, nonprofits, and Tribal and public services. They don’t all offer the same medical care or operate the same way. The complexity and fragmentation of ambulance services complicated the state’s ability offer out-of-network billing protections until this year.
ACLU of Idaho says state’s public defense system still falls short
The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho says the state continues to violate the constitutional rights of criminal defendants even after changes to its public defense system.
Counties handed over their public defense operations to the new Idaho State Public Defender’s office in October.
Since then, the ACLU writes in a new court filing that hundreds, if not thousands, of indigent defendants were left without a lawyer as required by the Sixth Amendment.
The motion outlines many instances in courts across the state where judges have postponed hearings for weeks or months because no attorney would show up.
The ACLU says multiple public defenders who have shown up have said they don’t have enough lawyers to cover these cases.
The group wants the Idaho Supreme Court to release all defendants from jail who have not been represented by a public defender at critical hearings or who haven’t communicated with them within seven days of being appointed one.
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Reporting was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and Brandon Hollingsworth.