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In this rugged state of jagged peaks and black volcanic soils, people struggle to make a living and get good health care. Only Mississippi has lower average weekly wages, and in the last few years, about 110,000 people in Idaho, a state of only 1.7 million, have been priced out of the health insurance market by rising premiums, insurance industry estimates show. This is also a deeply conservative place, where dismantling or weakening the Affordable Care Act — the signature law of the Obama administration — has been a longstanding priority for the governor and the Republican-dominated Legislature. Now those two powerful trends are colliding. (Johnson and Pear, 3/9)

Idaho's Gov. Butch Otter (R) is not backing down from a plan to skirt ObamaCare rules with new state health insurance plans, despite a letter from the Trump administration saying the plan appeared to violate federal law. Otter said Friday that, despite a letter warning the state about its plans this week, the Trump administration is not asking the state to back down and discussions remain open. (Sullivan, 3/9)

Kaiser Health News: No-Go For Idaho: Back To The Drawing Board On State-Based Health Plans

No, you can’t. That’s what federal officials told Idaho regulators and the state’s governor late Thursday regarding the state’s plan to allow insurers to sell health plans that fall short of the Affordable Care Act’s requirements. (Appleby, 3/9)

The sole health-insurance carrier selling individual policies in Iowa this year says it might take the state to court if legislators let a competitor ignore Affordable Care Act rules. Medica is frustrated by a bill the Iowa Senate passed Wednesday evening, which would let Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield partner with the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation to sell a new type of health coverage. The new policies would be defined as “health benefit plans,” which would technically not be insurance and would not be regulated by the Iowa Insurance Division. Although it doesn’t name Wellmark or the Farm Bureau, the bill is written so that only they could sell such policies. (Leys, 3/9)