NFL PLAYOFFS Wild- ca r d w eekend: C ol ts r a ll yt o b e a t K. C.; Sa in ts u pend Ea gle s PREVIEW OF TODAY’S GAMES • IN SPORTS IDAHO MOMENTS A ne w st a rt in a ne w home fo r one B oi s ef a mil y LIFE, L1 I d a ho S t a t e s m a n JANUARY 5, 2014 29° / 14° SEE A15 CLEAR $2 BSU BASKETBALL BEATS FRESNO STATE IN MW OPENER SPORTS, S1 SUNDAY EDITION 20 14 IDAHO LEGISLATURE IDAHO STATESMAN: A McCl atchy Newspaper ,1200 N. Curtis Road, Boi se, ID • P . O. Box 40, Boi se, ID 83707 • ( 208) 377 - 6200 • © 2014 I daho Stat esman, V ol . 149, No. 164, 6sections, 48 pages INSIDE TODAY “ W e don’t kno wwher e t he danger ous pl ac es ar e, and nei t her do our s heep .” ZIR GOL, nomad in Afghani stan, home of much unexploded or dnance A7 H e a l t he x c h a nge v o t e a ‘t ipping poin t’? BY DAN POPKEY dpopkey@idahostatesman. com © 2014 Idaho Statesman In the 2012 Republican primary , Danielle Ahrens gotwhipped, winning just 30 percent of the vote against Sen. Shawn Keough. When supporters urged Ahrensto try again in 2014, she shied. “I said there’s a 40-pointspread there, ” Ahrensrecalled. “Y ou can’t argue with statistics. ” She became emboldened after Keough, of Sandpoint, voted for a state- run health insurancemarketplace in F eb- ruary and March, making I daho the onl y state with both aRepublican governor and Republican-led Legislature to do so underthe Affordable Care Act. “Aftershe voted for Obamacare, her basejust became enraged with her , ”said Ahrens, who spentthe 2013session in Boise monitoring legislation and testify- ing on behalf of folks back home. “I kept being asked, over and over , please run. Thatwasthe tipping point. ” Keough rejects the viewshe voted “for Obamacare.” Rather , like Gov . Butch Ot- ter and other Republicans, she says a state-runexchange wasthe best wayto protect state sovereignty and jobs, and to assure accountability . The longtime vice chair of the budget committee acknowledgesthatthe rocky rollout of the exchange complicates her bid for a 10th term. Expectto see a long and dramatic campaign. “Stock up on popcorn,”said Keough, who held fundraisers in November and December and added an online donation tab on her campaign website. “I have never started this earl y . ” I daho Republican Chairman Barry Pe- terson predicts that 2014 will be the most acti ve GOP primary in his 66-year life- time, with more challengers, money and earl y campaigning. Many GOP incumbents who joined Gov. Ottertof avor a state-run planexpect primary challenges from the right. Monday: I daho businesses’ 2014 wi sh li st? I ncenti ves and tax br eaks. T uesday: Gov. Otter outlines hi s budget and priori ties in hi s State of the State Addr ess on Monday , and legi sl ators and leaders r espond. At I dahoSt at esman. c om: R ead about t he go v er nor’s s peec h and budget on Monda y af t er noon, and follo w Dan P opke y’s blog. Idaho Politics app: Get com- plete cover age and otherr e- sour ces thr oughout the session fr om our app for i OS and Andr oid. Find i t atyour phone’s app stor e. COVERING THE 2014 SESSION N urs ing ca r e ca ll u nne rv e s f a milie s BY ERIC ADLER THE KANSAS CITY STAR KANSAS CITY , Mo. — F or Denise Thomas, the choice back then was as easy as itwas joyous. Theywere young together in 1978. She was a slight and easygo- ing 26-year-old Kansas woman with curl y brownhair and a white dress. He wasthe hard-working and hard-partying Missourian— a 28-year-old with abeard who was once devil-may-care enough to racemuscle cars down the streets and li ve in abuddy’s closet. They metthrough friends and became inseparable. T o them, the vowwasreal. Do you, Denise, take Randyto be your lawfull ywedded husband, tohave and to hold, from this day forward, for better , forworse, for richer , for poorer , in sickness and health, until death do you part? “W ehad the best marriage, ”she says of somuch of their35 years to- gether . Because of that, Denise Thomas, now61, views the deci- sion she knows she must soon make as one of the most wrenching in her life. Emotionall y , physicall y and fi- nanciall y , deciding whether to place Randy in long-termnursing care because of his earl y dementia is nowtearing at her and at her conflicted famil y ,just assimilar choices confront ever more Amer- icanswith aging or ill parents, spouses or even children. More than 1.5 million Americansrecei ve care in an as- sisted-li ving or nursing facility — A wife and sons in Kansas go t hr ough t he painf ulpr ocess of deciding what i s best for a man t he y bar el yr ecogni z e. JEROME A. POLLOS /special to the Idaho Statesman Amy Workman and herson, Ben, boxup belongings attheir Coeur d’ Alene home.“It’s a bad si tuation, and I’ m stuck, ” Workman said, descri bing howshe fell into the Medi caid gap in Idaho, pr ompting her deci sion to leave the state. STUCK IN THE MEDICAID GAP BY AUDREY DUTTON adutton@idahostatesman. com © 2014 Idaho Statesman Amy W orkman and her 12-year-old son spent the holidays stuffing their Coeur d’Alene home into a moving truck. They gave awaysome furniture. They gave a neighbortheir Christmas tree. A few days after Christmas, the mother of three and heryoungest son hitthe road for Oregon. They headed west in search of health insurance. W orkmanis one of the estimated 54,780 adults in I daho who fall into the so-called Medicaid gap— a health insurance no- man’s-land being created thisyear in I daho and 24 other states where lawmakers decided nottoexpand Medicaid programs. “I t’s notright,” W orkman said. “They’re ignoring that people arefalling through the cracks. ” THE GAP OPENS The 2010 Affordable Care Act ordered statesto offer Medicaid coverage starting Jan. 1 forthose between the poverty line and middle class. People making less than 1.38 timesthe federal poverty level — about $21,400 for a household like W orkman’s, us- ing thisyear’s guidelines — were to recei ve coverage. The federal governmentwould subsidize insurancepremiums for people who make up to four timesthe poverty line — a maximum of $62, 040 for a household like W orkman’s. In I daho, the Medicaid programis open to impoverished children, people with disabili- ties and a few other groups of people. Adults can qualify if they’reparents making less than$2,800 a year for a household the size of W orkman’s. The expansion would have added tens of thousands of adults to I daho Medicaid. But aU.S. Supreme Court ruling turned that plan upside down. The court said in 2012 that states have the powerto choose whether theywant aMedicaid expansion. I daho has opted out sof ar , and Gov . Butch Otter and members of the Legislaturehave T ens of t ho us a nds of I da ho ’s poo r e st will st a yu ninsur ed t hi sy e a r; one of t hem ma ke s a v e ry t o u gh c hoi c e JOE JASZEWSKI / jjaszewski@idahostatesman.com Reps. Ri ch Will s, left, and Gary Collins attend aDec. 10 fundr ai ser for Republi can incumbents in Downtown Boise. Will s, of Glenns F erry , was among the fi rst legi slators targeted wi th abill boar d bl asting hi svote for a state-run heal thex - change. See GOP , A14 See MEDICAID, A13 See CARE, A10 SECRETS OF DOWNTON A s S e a s on 4 of t he pop u l a r PBS s ho w ki c k s off, t a ke a t o ur of t he c h a r ac t e rs , c ust om s , c o stu me s a nd mo r e IN PARADE