Assistant Majority Leader Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, (center) speaks from the House floor on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
Idaho’s DOGE Committee will recommend repealing Medicaid expansion and eventually eliminating the state funding for the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
Lawmakers on the task force, named for the now disbanded federal Department of Government Efficiency, met Friday for their last meeting before the 2026 legislative session convenes Jan. 12.
The task force cannot pass legislation, only create recommendations for the rest of the Legislature to consider. Lawmakers are approaching the legislative session with a projected $40.3 million deficit for the fiscal year.
Many services are protected by law, Medicaid expansion targeted for repeal to cut costs
Taskforce member Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, said Friday that eliminating Medicaid expansion “seems like a simple no-brainer.”
The program was approved via ballot initiative in 2018 to expand Medicaid eligibility to those who didn’t qualify for traditional Medicaid but didn’t earn enough to qualify for premium tax credits to be able to afford private insurance through the state health care marketplace.
Task force members on Friday heard from Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Deputy Director of Medicaid Sasha O’Connell, who gave an overview of cost-cutting measures the agency has already taken in response to the projected deficit, including a 4% cut to the rate paid to physicians who provide care to Medicaid patients and the mental health service cuts done by private state contractor Magellan in November.
She explained that under a combination of state and federal regulations, there are very few cost-cutting measures the health agency is able to do without some legislative changes.
“I can tell you sincerely that we are doing everything that we can, but that we face several limitations,” O’Connell said, “and so when we cannot reduce rates, what that means is that we need to consider service cuts to attain those budget hold backs.”
While a number of services are considered “optional” under federal regulations, such as home-and-community based services for people with disabilities, many of those services are protected in state law, O’Connell said.
Medicaid expansion insures more than 85,000 Idahoans, as of numbers provided Dec. 12. The benefits under the program are 90% covered by the federal government, with the state paying the remaining 10%.
The expansion program costs around $91.7 million in state general funds, O’Connell said. However, the program also partially funds other services, such as a portion of the state hospital funding and the home-and-community-based services through a tax on hospitals incurred based on the number of expansion patients that hospital services.
If Medicaid expansion were repealed, State Hospital North and State Hospital South would lose nearly $28 million, she said, and home-and-community based services would lose $38.3 million.
Task force co-Chair Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, said he never supported Medicaid expansion and that the option should be “explored” by the House and Senate Health and Welfare committees, due to the “complexity of the issue.”
Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, made a motion to recommend repeal of the program.
“It’s up to the germane committees on how they handle it, but I think our recommendation would be to repeal Medicaid expansion,” Tanner said.
Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene, argued that expansion “wasn’t working.”
“I want to do things that are actually going to support our constituents, actually provide access and provide better care. That’s what I want, and I don’t see that what we’ve done with the expanded Medicaid has done any of those things,” Bjerke said.
The committee’s lone Democrat, Sen. Carrie Semmelroth of Boise, said she wasn’t sure the committee had enough information to determine if a repeal would “ensure fiscal responsibility.” She noted that prior to expansion, there was a catastrophic fund, to help cover costs to treat indigent patients but the fund was eliminated with the implementation of Medicaid expansion.
Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, said he would be supportive of directing Health and Welfare to contain costs in Medicaid without fully recommending its repeal.
“I don’t know if it’s an all-or-nothing,” Manwaring said. “There may be some other things we can do to contain costs without a full repeal of Medicaid expansion. So when we use that language, I think we’re painting a little bit too broadly.”
Manwaring and Semmelroth were the only no votes on Tanner’s motion to recommend repeal.
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Committee considers removing state funding for Idaho Commission for Hispanic Affairs
Annette Tipton, executive director of the Idaho Commission for Hispanic Affairs, told task force members that the state office is “modest but mighty,” serving as a bridge between state government and the state’s Hispanic community.
The general fund budget request for the commission is around $85,000 for fiscal year 2026, which would cover the only two full-time employees, the director and her administrative assistant.
Lawmakers questioned why the state should be providing public money for the commission,
likening it to “DEI,” which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“How do you justify within a Hispanic Commission, a separate, specialized commission that’s doing something when, realistically, we are all Americans?” Tanner asked. “And that is what we should be working for, that is what we should be standing on and not to me, this more seems like a DEI type thing.”
Tipton said that the commission was formed in the 1980s, when “DEI wasn’t even a thing.” She said the programs, such as the student leadership program, is open to all students and has shown a positive correlation with graduation rates and higher education enrollment rates.
She said enrollment in that program is about half Hispanic and half non-Hispanic.
“Everything this office has done has impacted not only our Hispanic population, but the population at large,” Tipton said.
Tanner and committee members expressed support for Tipton as the agency’s new director and the commission, but questioned if state funds should still be used.
‘My world started out in Idaho:’ Governor names new director of Commission on Hispanic Affairs
The commission has also raised about another $85,000 in non-taxpayer dollars, Tipton said.
Scott asked if the commission could do its work as a private nonprofit.
Tipton said the success in fundraising and of the commission is largely in part because of its affiliation with the state government.
“I believe that a lot of the success that we’ve had over the last three decades has been because we are associated with the state of Idaho,” Tipton said. “That state of Idaho reputation is invaluable.”
During public comment, Caldwell Police Chief, and immediate past president of the Idaho Police Chiefs Association, Rex Ingram spoke in support of the commission and its work.
Ingram noted that nearly 14% of the state’s population is Hispanic and around 40% of Caldwell’s population is. He said effective policing in the state necessitates strong relationships and communication, including with the commission. He briefly noted the conversations around the Wilder raid, in which the FBI made around five arrests for illegal gambling and federal immigration authorities arrested more than 100 people who were at the horse track that day.
“This is a critical flashpoint in time, in our country and in our state,” Ingram said, “Where we need to continue building these relationships to enhance that dialogue with a community that is a little bit broken right now. And so I would just say that, as a member of the (Idaho Police Chiefs Association) and the current chief of police, a lot of our issues stem from crimes involving underserved, underprivileged communities, and the Hispanic community is not immune to that.”
Tanner made a motion to explore removing general funds from the commission in a phased approach.
“I don’t know if it would be a one-year, a two-year or a three-year thing, but I think moving away from that and getting that organization to go back out into the community and raise its funds is an important message that we’re sending to the rest of the communities out there within the state of Idaho.”
Tanner’s motion passed with only Semmelroth voting against it.
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