Little: 'It will be the end of Obamacare for a pretty wide swath of Idaho citizens' - East Idaho News
Local

Little: ‘It will be the end of Obamacare for a pretty wide swath of Idaho citizens’

  Published at

IDAHO FALLS — After signing an executive order on healthcare in Idaho, Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and Lt. Gov. Brad Little are touring the state to talk about what the order means for Idaho.

Early this month, Otter signed an order that permits the sale of health insurance plans that wouldn’t normally qualify under the Affordable Care Act.

Otter told EastIdahoNews.com the executive order was a result of a meeting he and other governors had with former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. Otter said since that meeting Idaho has been given a “cautious greenlight” to move forward with the state’s healthcare plan to offer a broader range of health insurance options.

“In other words — allow people to buy what they want instead of what the government thinks they should buy,” Otter said.

Otter said prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Idaho was the second cheapest state in terms of the cost of health insurance.

“As a result of Obamacare — it took us clear out of the private marketplace, it took us really out of the competition and out of the major risk pools that we had established as a result of the people that had been involved in buying an insurance policy in the state of Idaho,” Otter said. “And when that went away so did the fiduciary soundness of our entire insurance market.”

Little said they believe the executive order will allow the Idaho Department of Insurance to work with all the insurance providers in the state, driving down costs.

“It will be the end of Obamacare for a pretty wide swath of Idaho citizens,” Little said. “In essence, they’re going to be able to buy insurance for — we believe, conservatively — 30 to 50 percent less than what they’re paying for today.”

Otter said he hopes Idaho’s plan will bring insurance costs back to where they were before the Affordable Care Act.

During his interview with EastIdahoNews.com, Otter also talked about the driving force behind Idaho’s boom in healthcare related jobs. In his State of the State address, Otter said the healthcare industry in Idaho has accounted for 46 percent of overall job growth since he took office in 2007.

He said that is due to the fact that we are the fastest growing state in the country. It also has to do with Idaho’s aging population.

“Idaho’s getting a little older,” Otter said. “People like retiring in Idaho. It’s a nice place and it’s inexpensive.”

Due in part to those reasons and Idaho’s booming population in general he said, there is a considerable market for healthcare professionals in the state.

The governor’s plan for the future of Idaho’s education

Along with it’s increased aging population, Idaho is also one of the top-ranked states in student population growth, according to the National Education Association. With a quickly growing student population, Idaho has one of the largest average classroom sizes in the country with roughly 20 students per teacher.

Otter said Idaho has exceeded 300,000 students in its K-12 program.

“That’s one of the reasons we created a five-year education plan and a career ladder in the state of Idaho,” Otter said. “It’s to tell teachers that if you’ll get a teachers certificate and teach in Idaho — you’ve got a career ahead of you in Idaho.”

In his State of the State address, Otter requested an additional $59 million for education programs throughout the state. He said the overall goal for that money is to help with workforce development.

“I don’t care what kind of business you’re in,” he explained. “Whether you’re in the business of educating people, or training people or manufacturing a product you need highly motivated educated people that can be creative — that can create your next generation of products.”

He said to advance workforce development, more needs to be done to create opportunities for students to gain marketable skills.

“I applaud Idaho Falls for the creation of the eastern Idaho community College (College of Eastern Idaho) and I expect the same great success here in eastern Idaho that we’ve had western Idaho, he said.” Western Idaho (College of Western Idaho) opened up in 2009 with roughly 1500 to 1900 students. Today there’s 29,000 students.”

He said that shows there is want and need for affordable higher education in Idaho.

“The more opportunities, the more portals of education that we can create for either establishing a skill and a certifiable skill or a 4-year-degree or 8-year-degree — we need to be doing just that.”

Otter and Little also discussed various other topics and goals for the 2018 legislative session. Their full interview with EastIdahoNews.com can be found above.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION