What to Do About Medicaid? Tackling the addiction of government welfare. By Brian Almon (03/04/25)

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Brian Almon offers an excellent analysis of two bills — H0138 and H0345 — designed to rein in Medicaid spending.

• H0138 (rated +5 by Idaho Freedom Foundation) creates sideboards for Medicaid Expansion, including a cap on enrollees and work requirements for those who receive benefits. Includes a trigger clause that would completely repeal Expansion should the federal government not grant the waivers necessary to add those sideboards.

• Alternative H0345 (rated +3 by Idaho Freedom Foundation) includes work requirements and other sideboards, but has no trigger clause. It also includes switching to a managed care plan (which is a step toward socialist single-payer health care) instead of the current value care organization plan.

We strongly favor H0138 and agree with Mr. Almon on this crucial point, which Idaho legislators should take seriously:

We must reorient our society away from a welfare model and back toward one that not only incentivizes self-sufficiency, but creates room for people to take care of each other as well. There is nothing noble about passing a law to confiscate tax dollars and give them to someone else. That is a very different thing than giving of yourself to help your fellow man.

References:

• H0345 - Medicaid, amendments, leg approval:

  • Bill: tinyurl.com/5kp7x3xm

  • Idaho Freedom Foundation: House Bill 345 — Medicaid Reform, Parameters, Cost-Containment (+3): tinyurl.com/46emvzn6

• H0138 - Medicaid expansion, conditions:

  • Bill: tinyurl.com/34nhxp34

  • Idaho Freedom Foundation: House Bill 138 — Medicaid expansion, conditions (+5): tinyurl.com/y8hvtsrw

  • Related Note about H0138: tinyurl.com/bdhkpncb