Sen. Julie Van Orden flags Medicaid expansion growth, foster-care spending and caregiver workforce concerns
February 21, 2025 | Appropriations, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Committees, Legislative, Idaho
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Senator Julie Van Orden, who chairs a Health and Welfare committee, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Friday that her panel had heard several budget-related concerns, including faster growth in the Medicaid expansion population, questions about Meals on Wheels funding for seniors, and workforce gaps in the family personal care services program.
"I got some feedback from my committee on the budgets," Van Orden told the JFAC members. "The Medicaid expansion population is growing faster than the regular Medicaid population. But yet the core Medicaid, it still represents the majority of the spending." She said a committee member attributed some spending growth to inflation in medical costs.
Van Orden said her committee supported focus on foster care and expansion of foster-care services, even if that represents a larger near-term spend: "...this person felt like health and welfare and the focus on foster care was a good thing. And even though it was a larger spend this year, in the long run, this person felt like it would be worth it in the end." She also asked staff and the department to follow up on the family personal care services program and whether earlier rate increases intended to support direct-care workers had actually raised worker pay and improved workforce recruitment.
On the Meals on Wheels question, the senator said she had not confirmed line-by-line but noted the agency on aging did not request new funding and that the committee could support the program through the general government maintenance budget.
Committee members asked analysts to gather additional detail: Senator Wintrow said she expected a departmental report on how rate reimbursement increases for direct-care workers had been spent and whether they raised salaries for workers. The chair directed staff to follow up and to pass the questions to agency leadership.
Why it matters: Van Orden’s remarks flagged programmatic and workforce issues that lawmaker and analysts repeatedly cited during budget deliberations, and they set the stage for multiple supplemental and FY2026 requests the committee later considered for mental-health, psychiatric hospitalization and related services.
"I got some feedback from my committee on the budgets," Van Orden told the JFAC members. "The Medicaid expansion population is growing faster than the regular Medicaid population. But yet the core Medicaid, it still represents the majority of the spending." She said a committee member attributed some spending growth to inflation in medical costs.
Van Orden said her committee supported focus on foster care and expansion of foster-care services, even if that represents a larger near-term spend: "...this person felt like health and welfare and the focus on foster care was a good thing. And even though it was a larger spend this year, in the long run, this person felt like it would be worth it in the end." She also asked staff and the department to follow up on the family personal care services program and whether earlier rate increases intended to support direct-care workers had actually raised worker pay and improved workforce recruitment.
On the Meals on Wheels question, the senator said she had not confirmed line-by-line but noted the agency on aging did not request new funding and that the committee could support the program through the general government maintenance budget.
Committee members asked analysts to gather additional detail: Senator Wintrow said she expected a departmental report on how rate reimbursement increases for direct-care workers had been spent and whether they raised salaries for workers. The chair directed staff to follow up and to pass the questions to agency leadership.
Why it matters: Van Orden’s remarks flagged programmatic and workforce issues that lawmaker and analysts repeatedly cited during budget deliberations, and they set the stage for multiple supplemental and FY2026 requests the committee later considered for mental-health, psychiatric hospitalization and related services.
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