Idaho Voters Have Already Spoken: Why Won't Legislators Listen?
As HB 138 heads to the Senate, voters need to know why their legislators are betraying them.
In 2018, Idaho voters sent a clear and resounding message: expand Medicaid. Proposition 2 passed with 60.6% support, securing health coverage for tens of thousands of working Idahoans who previously fell into the coverage gap—earning too much for traditional Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance.
Republicans voters joined in and supported the successful initiative to help their neighbors.
But now, a small group of ideologically driven legislators, backed by special interests and the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), are trying to undo what the people have already decided. House Bill 138 (HB 138) is the latest attempt to gut Medicaid expansion, and it’s moving forward despite overwhelming public opposition.
House Bill 138: A Betrayal of the Voter's Will
HB 138, advanced by the House Health & Welfare Committee, imposes new barriers to Medicaid access, including work requirements, enrollment caps, and the potential termination of coverage if federal funding shifts. If passed, this bill will strip healthcare from thousands of Idahoans—parents, veterans, seniors, and working families who rely on Medicaid to survive.
During the committee hearing, the divide was stark. Real Idahoans—nurses, cancer survivors, and small business owners—testified against the bill, sharing heartfelt stories of how Medicaid saved their lives and kept their families afloat. Over 250 people signed up to testify and/or submitted written testimony against the bill. But their voices were drowned out by a handful paid lobbyists parroting the talking points of the IFF political machine.
The Political Machine Behind the Cruelty
The driving force behind HB 138 isn’t about fiscal responsibility—it’s about power and profit. The Idaho Freedom Foundation and its allies—Bryan Smith, Doyle Beck, and Brent Regan—have long sought to dismantle Medicaid expansion. Smith, a prominent medical debt collector, may stand to benefit directly if more Idahoans fall into medical debt due to lack of coverage. These same individuals fund the Idaho Freedom PAC and Citizens Alliance, the political machine responsible for electing hardline legislators loyal to their agenda. Their loyalty blinds them to the fact that by killing the Medicaid expansion, they'll raise property taxes just to punish people they don't care about.
What's the point of committee hearings if legislators are just going to follow orders from the political machine that put them in office?
Representatives Tanya Burgoyne and Lucas Caylor, both products of this machine, exemplified this loyalty during the hearing. Their comments sounded rehearsed, like they were reading straight from an IFF playbook and delivering lines to support their pre-determined vote. These legislators weren’t elected to serve Idahoans—they were installed to serve the interests of the few, even if it means pushing families into medical bankruptcy.
Real Lives, Real Consequences
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Medicaid expansion currently covers over 89,000 Idahoans, many of whom work in jobs without health benefits—construction, childcare, retail, and agriculture. These are people were born right here in Idaho. Repealing or restricting this coverage means families will delay care, get sicker, and face crushing medical debt. Rural hospitals, already struggling, will be pushed closer to closure as uncompensated care skyrockets.
Medicaid saves families burdened by crippling cancer treatment costs.
90% of Medicaid funding is paid for with federal funds and if the expansion crumbles, the burden of these costs will fall to the counties and subsequently raise property taxes.
Why kill Medicaid expansion? To appease a handful of political operatives and lobbyists? Idahoans didn’t vote for this—they voted to expand Medicaid. The people spoke, and their legislators are intentionally ignoring them.
Tell Your Senators to Listen—or Face the Voters
The battle now moves to the Idaho Senate, where every voter must make their voice heard. Contact your state senator and demand they vote NO on HB 138. Let them know there will be hell to pay if they ignore the will of the people. Idahoans are watching, and the second families start losing healthcare—when a mom can’t afford her child’s asthma medication, when a dad skips cancer treatment because he lost coverage—there will be accountability.
This is more than politics—it’s about survival. Legislators who side with lobbyists and political operatives over the people they were elected to serve will face the wrath of the ballot box. Idaho voters spoke once. If ignored again, they’ll speak louder in November and voters like me will work harder than ever to ensure they are held accountable at the polls.
Contact your state senator today. Demand they stand with Idaho families—not the IFF political machine. Go to IdahoVoters.com to find your State Senator’s contact information.
About the Author
Gregory Graf is the creator of Political Potatoes and a lifelong conservative Republican. His articles often criticize the hypocrisy committed by far-right grifters who’ve taken control of the GOP. Graf is the CEO of Snake River Strategies, a communications and political consulting firm based in Eagle, Idaho. He and his family moved to Idaho Falls from Utah in 2013 and reside in Star.
Disclaimer
The following is intended to convey an opinion on newsworthy events of public concern regarding public figures and/or public officials in exercising their official duties. No implications or inferences—beyond those explicitly stated in the preceding— are intended to be conveyed or endorsed by the Author. Wherever available, hyperlinks have been provided to allow readers to directly access any underlying assertions of fact upon which this opinion is based.
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The most maddening part about the problem of legislators ignoring their constituents is that Idahoans keep voting for these guys time-after-time. For one thing, they ignore the primaries, when they could vote the radicals out. They blindly vote along party lines, ignoring red flags about what their candidates truly stand for. Now, they’re about to lose the last ounce of power they have as voters - the ballot initiative process.
Moderate Republicans and Democrats have been ringing the warning bell about these problems for years - to no avail.
It’s really hard to muster up any sympathy for people who are either willingly ignorant, or too lazy to fight for their voices, their rights, their votes, or their issues. If you’re not part of the solution - you’re part of the problem.
Because they never listen to us.