The House has passed SB 1391, the Medicaid budget for next year, on a close 39-30 vote, after House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, spoke out against it, saying Idaho is failing its citizens by not providing health coverage to 78,000 people who fall into a coverage gap, making too much to qualify for the current Medicaid program but too little to qualify for subsidized insurance through the state health insurance exchange.

“This budget does not serve the citizens of Idaho as well as it could,” Rusche told the House. “I suggest we send it back and have another try.”

Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, said he was against the budget for a different reason – he thought it spent too much on Medicaid.

In the end, the 30 opponents of the bill included 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats; Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the budget.

The “no” votes came from Reps. Barbieri, Bateman, Batt, Chaney, Collins, Crane, Dixon, Erpelding, Gannon, Gestrin, Harris, Jordan, King, Kloc, McCrostie, McMillan, Moyle, Nate, Nielsen, Nye, Pence, Rubel, Rudolph, Rusche, Scott, Shepherd, Sims, Smith, Thompson, and Wintrow. The budget bill now goes to the governor’s desk.