There is no federal law that requires states to run a government medical welfare program, and if ever there was a time for Idaho to consider opting out of doing so, this is it.
To be clear, I don’t expect lawmakers or Gov. Brad Little to propose something so bold as to opt out of Medicaid. I just point out the legal reality because the situation for this program is so dire that if nothing is done to contain Medicaid it will eventually consume every single dollar of new revenue the state brings in from income and sales tax collections. This means each year, when lawmakers meet to consider state spending, there will be no money available to add to public schools, roads, police or prisons, unless a decision is made to raise taxes.
That’s looking down the road. For right now, however, once again, the state faces a big, unexpected bill when it comes to Medicaid, the program for the state-federal partnership that used to be exclusively for the poor and disab…
