House Speaker Scott Bedke said of the state’s health coverage gap, “We weren’t even talking about this last year,” saying lawmakers have made progress “with their knowledge and understanding the issue.” Bedke said, “We look forward to working with … the governor’s office and the Senate to craft an Idaho-based solution to address this important issue. There is acknowledgment that we need to do something different from what we’re doing. What that looks like, the House feel strongly that there needs to be a legislative component to that solution going forward. Whatever the waiver we may or may not ask for, I think we need to be in the middle of that.”

Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill said, “I think it was a successful session. We didn’t get everything done. We’ll have some things next year. What failures we may have had, those are opportunities to begin again with greater understanding, with more information, and with greater confidence that we’re closer to the solutions that we need to find for the citizens of Idaho.”

Gov. Butch Otter cited “what both the pro-tem and speaker said: A year ago we weren’t even talking about this sort of thing. What we did get was we got two ideas from separate ends of the rotunda, and what we’ve got to do now in the interim is bring those two ideas together, so that we do have an Idaho solution.”