Two supplemental appropriations regarding the Your Health Idaho exchange cleared JFAC this morning on identical 15-5 votes, with Sens. Sheryl Nuxoll, Dean Mortimer and Steven Thayn and Reps. Jason Monks and Van Burtenshaw objecting. The measures provide spending authority for money coming from the 1.5 percent fee that people pay when they buy health insurance on the exchange, to run calculations through Idaho’s Medicaid eligibility program as part of calculating tax credits available through the exchange; no state funds are being tapped.

Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood, said, “The Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional and socialistic. It forces us to buy insurance, it forces dependence on the government.” She said that’s why she’d be voting against the supplemental appropriations. None of the other dissenters offered any explanation; Gov. Butch Otter recommended approval of both measures.