Latest news with #IdahoLaunch
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Hospital CEO says Idaho Legislature not doing enough to support medical workforce
Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, at left, and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, speak during the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on May 19, 2025, at the College of Eastern Idaho in Idaho Falls. (Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun) IDAHO FALLS – Two health care professionals told members of the Idaho Legislature's budget committee Monday that they are not doing enough to produce the medical workforce the state needs and that doctors are leaving the state due to its strict abortion ban. The comments came during the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee's first day of spring meetings Monday in Idaho Falls. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, is a powerful legislative committee that sets the budgets for every state agency and department. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The medical workforce debate started during a workforce panel discussion at the College of Eastern Idaho after Rep. James Petzke, R-Meridian, asked the panelists if the Idaho Legislature was doing enough to develop the kind of modern workforce Idaho employers and industries need. Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center CEO Betsy Hunsicker didn't sugar-coat her answer. She immediately told Petzke the short answer is 'no.' 'It's very challenging, and we don't have OB-GYN coming in here,' Hunsicker said. 'We're not training general surgeons. We're not. Physicians generally practice where they train. So I think the training piece for residency for physicians is really probably something that needs to continue to grow.' Hunsicker and other panelists asked legislators to support two programs to help develop the state's workforce – medical residency programs and the Idaho Launch workforce training initiative championed by Gov. Brad Little. The discussion and the tension ratcheted up during a presentation later Monday given by Dr. Jennifer Cook, the OB fellowship director and associate director of the family medicine residency program at Full Circle Health in Boise. Cook was giving an overview of health education programs and talking about ways to bring more doctors to Idaho. Cook said huge swaths of Idaho are considered maternal care deserts, and the state ranks near the bottom nationally when it comes to physicians-per-capita. In addition to supporting incentives like loan repayment programs and investing in medical residencies and fellowships, Cook told legislators they could attract more doctors if they clarified the state's near total abortion ban to include the health of the pregnant mother – not just the life of the pregnant mother. 'Because right now, physicians are kind of scared to practice here, I'm not going to lie,' Cook told JFAC members. 'Because there's so much ambiguity – and I don't think that was intentional in any way, shape or form. I think people are trying to support their constituents – but it has led us to this gray area where we don't know what management is actually allowable, and that's really hard.' Cook said that ambiguity has real consequences. 'I had fellows who sat and watched a woman who was 19 weeks pregnant bleed and couldn't do anything about it, and just waited until she was so sick she was about to die,' Cook said. 'If that was your family, it would be really scary.' While she was talking, Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, turned to his neighbor, Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, and said, 'that's not true.' Moments later, Cook briefly paused her presentation to JFAC members. 'I can see some eyes rolling,' Cook said. 'I can see you all rolling your eyes.' Cook then continued her presentation. When she fielded questions after her presentation, Rep. Steven Miller, R-Fairfield, and Tanner told Cook that they feel Idaho's abortion law is clear. Tanner told Cook he thinks the discussion is political. He said his conservative doctor friends tell him the law is clear, while people who lean left are 'going nuts' over the abortion law. In an interview with the Idaho Capital Sun after Cook's presentation, Tanner said the life of the unborn baby gets lost in the debate. 'The problem that I see that they run into is they're only looking at the aspect of the mom, keeping that person alive, and not the actual baby,' Tanner told the Sun. Tanner also referenced the University of Washington's Washington, Wyoming Alaska, Montana and Idaho, or WWAMI, medical program. 'Part of the problem, in my opinion, I think overall is where you look at the training aspect that they actually go through,' Tanner told the Sum. 'So when they're going through the WWAMI they're going through up in Washington, and some of the actual classes and how most of the doctors that I talked to have come out like they're fully like, 'Abortion is no different than needing stitches. It's no different than anything.' And I think they dehumanized that child at that point in time.' However, the University of Washington has said it does not use Idaho funds to teach courses related to abortion care, according to the Spokesman-Review. At a legislative hearing during the 2025 session, UW School of Medicine Vice Dean Suzanne Allen said the school would agree to Idaho's abortion laws and stipulations, according to the Spokesman-Review. 'The University of Washington does not spend any Idaho funds on abortion care or abortion training,' she said. In a statement regarding House Bill 176, which sought to defund Idaho WWAMI, UW said it was disheartened to see the Legislature discuss dissolving a more than 50-year partnership. 'The Idaho WWAMI partnership is required to teach the same content to our students that other medical schools are required to teach across the country to pass the national licensing exam,' the university stated. 'This includes women's health content such as normal labor and delivery as well as complications including miscarriages that require abortion procedures.' Although the Idaho Legislature adjourned April 4 and is not in session, JFAC often conducts interim meetings during the fall and spring to continue monitoring the state budget and take a closer look at agencies and programs that receive state funding. This is not the first time JFAC members have been told that the Idaho Legislature's abortion ban has made it harder to attract and retain physicians. During a different JFAC interim tour on Nov. 21, 2024, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine President Tracy Farnsworth told legislators the abortion ban has run off existing physicians and may be scaring away new ones. 'Many of you probably know this, with our current Idaho state abortion laws that provide very little, if any, opportunity to terminate a pregnancy for health because we don't have a health of the mother exception, we've lost roughly 25% of our OB-GYN,' Farnsworth said in November. 'We've gone from 200 to 150 OB-GYN, and we are hearing anecdotal evidence of a number of graduating OB-GYN residency students choosing not to come to Idaho because of fear of losing their license and (being) criminalized,' Farnsworth added. JFAC members did not vote on any budgets or any bills on Monday. JFAC's spring meetings continue Tuesday with a tour of community resource centers and the Idaho Department of Water Resources' Eastern Regional Office. JFAC's meetings are scheduled to conclude Wednesday with a tour of Idaho National Laboratory facilities. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Brad Little has changed education in Idaho forever
Idaho Gov. Brad Little gives a press conference after delivering his annual State of the State address on Jan. 6, 2025, in the Lincoln Auditorium in the Idaho Capitol. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) Gov. Brad Little with one stroke of a pen has betrayed the Idaho Constitution, Idaho's 314,000 public school students, its teachers and the courageous legislators who voted against the voucher bill and who comprise the base of his support in the Legislature. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signs law that directs state funds to private school tuition In his State of the State address, the governor made a point of saying he would not sign a bill that was not fair, responsible, transparent or accountable. In his message upon signing the bill, the governor didn't explain how House Bill 93 met any of these standards. Days before signing, he even admitted it wasn't accountable. The brave GOP legislators who voted against it saw that the bill did not meet these standards and probably took Little at his word that he would judge it the same way. Unfortunately, these lawmakers, who have given him all his accomplishments over the past six years, including Idaho Launch, now have a huge bull's eye on their backs. The governor has set them up for potential defeat in the 2026 GOP primary election at the hands of the very out-of-state billionaires and their front organizations he delighted by approving House Bill 93 on Thursday. Those billionaires have already started attacking these lawmakers on social media. The governor may think that by signing the voucher tax-credit bill he has satisfied these billionaires. But history in other states shows that they never give up until they get universal vouchers with no income eligibility limit. Eventually the Idaho voucher program will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and the money will go to families who already send their kids to private and religious schools. The governor may also think he has made peace with the far right so that he can pursue whatever next step he wants to take in politics: a third term, a run for the U.S. Senate someday, or a prominent position in the Trump administration. Maybe even joining other Idaho Govs. Cecil Andrus and Dirk Kempthorne becoming secretary of Interior. The trouble is the governor cannot move far enough to the right to satisfy the far right of his party. No doubt party leaders already see that the governor's approval of the voucher bill, after years of sending signals he would not abandon public education, was more politically motivated than heartfelt. Furthermore, the governor's likely political rivals in the years ahead like Attorney General Raúl Labrador and House Speaker Mike Moyle come to their politics honestly – voters at least know where they stand. They usually reward candidates who stand for something. When the governor loses more of his base of support in 2026, whether he runs for re-election or not, it is likely that a more radically right Legislature will repeal his most precious accomplishment – Idaho Launch. Then the governor will be left with little more than the tattered remains of Launch and his own political legacy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
