NEWS/CITYDESK “We’re really considering the future of the Exxon/Mobil loads up to the Kearl Oil Sands project, aren’t we?” asked Horton. “No, no, no,” responded Lawrence Allen, attorney for ITD. “The department considers each load on a case-by-case basis.” Laird Lucas, of Advocates for the West, representing three Central Idahoans opposing the loads, vehemently disagreed. “Of course this is related to the Exxon/ Mobil loads,” said Lucas. “ITD even said if one company gets in, it’s going to impact everyone else.” Justice Jim Jones quizzed attorneys for ITD and ConocoPhillips on why the four massive coke drums were even sitting at the Lewiston port in the first place. “If the ITD hadn’t granted any permits yet, why were they there to begin with?” asked Jones. Allen was contrite. “It was a business decision by Conoco.” Conoco’s attorney Erik Stidham was more sheepish. “My client is over a barrel, your honor.” “There’s really nowhere else for them to go to, is there?” asked Jones. “Not if ITD isn’t allowed to grant a permit,” resigned Stidham. The hour-long arguments may have been moot. Justice Warren Jones returned several times to the same theme: The case may not have belonged in the courts in the first place. “I’m not so sure if this is a formally contested case,” said Jones. “You may not be subject to appeal or a right to review if there’s no jurisdiction here.” “This was more of an informal proceeding,” said Lucas. The plaintiffs’ attorney was referring to a hasty hearing before Second District Justice John Bradbur y to revoke ITD permits to allow the Conoco transport. Bradbur y agreed to block the permits pending more review. That prompted ITD and Conoco to request an expedited hearing before the high court, citing economic hardship. When might the parties get a ruling? Clerk of the Courts Stephen Kenyon told Citydesk that Idaho’s State Supreme Court has a median average of 60 days to hand down decisions. Rulings have come as short as two weeks and as long as nine months. Emotions aren’t expected to subside within any of those time frames. Meanwhile, some 359 nautical miles upriver from Lewiston, the first of the Exxon/ Mobil shipments have just arrived at the Port of Vancouver. The first 15 shiploads are slowly making their way through eight locks of the 14-foot navigation channel. Each module, manufactured in Korea and shipped across the Pacific, is 140-feet long by 24-feet wide and up to 26-feet high. The timing of the shipments is critical. Come Dec. 13, all barge traffic will come to a halt when scheduled lock maintenance begins and continues until mid-May. Budget crunchers at the Port of Lewiston are already forecasting a $100,000 revenue windfall for the coming fiscal year for docking and storage fees in connection to the Exxon/Mobil mega-loads. That may be conser vative. Officials at the Port of Vancouver are predicting that moving the equipment through their gates will bring in roughly $1 million. —George Prentice
10 | OCTOBER 6–12, 2010 | BOISEweekly
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WASDEN: ”WE’VE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH A LOT OF FOLKS ON THIS ISSUE. ANECDOTALLY, I CAN TELL YOU THAT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE CALLED OUR OFFICE ARE, BY FAR, SUPPORTING OUR LAWSUIT.” processes need to move forward.” One block away from Wasden’s office at the Idaho Department of Insurance, those processes have landed on the desk of Bill Deal. Having worked in the insurance industry for nearly a half century, Deal now oversees the Department of Insurance as its director. “It’s a new time. It’s the law of the land,” Deal echoed. “And we have to interpret the changes as best we can.” Deal has three constituencies: Idaho citizens, some 74,000 producers or agents (10,000 are Idaho residents) and the roughly 1,600 insurance companies doing business in Idaho (only about 19 are headquartered here). When it comes to health insurance, that pool gets pretty shallow. There are only seven carriers who offer individual health-care coverage, and two of them—Regence Blue Shield and Blue Cross—hold the lion’s share of the lambs. Regence Blue Shield controls 30 percent of the Idaho market with premiums of more than $100 million. Blue Cross is second with 23 percent of the market and premiums nearing $78 million. Deal said the companies’ success in Idaho is due to administrative efficiency and competitive rates. “Idaho has the lowest rates in the nation,” Deal said. “Out of 50 states, according to the Internal Revenue Service, Idaho has the lowest group rates for health insurance in the United States. And for individual rates, we’re about 47th in the nation.” Deal clearly has a sense of how reform will impact those rates. “Take away exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Uncap the lifetime benefit. Add new essential coverages and well-care,” Deal itemized. “As a result, you’ll have a more benefit-rich package. You can certainly expect a rate redistribution.” But not everyone is convinced that rates will shoot up. Dr. Julie Welty is a family physician in McCall. She serves a part of Idaho that has seen the longest and darkest shadows of unemployment and poverty, and when she talks to her friends and colleagues who might be a bit more conservative, she reminds them that reform makes good business sense. “So many people come into our emergency rooms that have no coverage. And of course we have to treat them,” argued Welty. “We’re, more often than not, treating them for problems that could have been prevented. And
we’re all paying for that. It ends up in your insurance rates. It ends up in your taxes.” And Welty’s strongest sentiments surround preventive care. “We’re talking about a colonoscopy long before colon cancer. A pap smear before cervical cancer. A mammogram long before someone could die from breast cancer,” she said. Welty comes from a family of healers. Both her father and mother are physicians. Dr. Thomas Welty and his wife, Dr. Edith Welty, spent a quarter century serving the impoverished on Native American reservations for the Navajo and Sioux. In addition, for the last decade, they’ve been traveling once or twice a year to Cameroon in West Africa. “We feel empathetic toward people that we know could benefit from systems of care but can’t access them, purely based on cost,” said Dr. Thomas Welty. “This lawsuit against the Obama administration is counterproductive,” said Dr. Edith Welty. “It’s so much better to just look at the new law and see how it can be best used to help Idahoans.” That’s why Dr. Welty … and Dr. Welty … and Dr. Welty all signed a harsh letter to Wasden. The letter included the following passage: “Your attempt to block the requirement to purchase insurance and the expansion of Medicaid threatens to harm our most vulnerable patients in Idaho that cannot afford health insurance or are being denied coverage. The lawsuit leaves uncertainty for families that desperately need access to health care.” After the letter was sent to the media, including BW, Wasden said he was more than happy to meet with the group. “I explained to them that legal issues are at stake. It’s not about policy,” said Wasden. “We’ve had conversations with a lot of folks on this issue. Anecdotally, I can tell you that the majority of people who have called our office are, by far, supporting our lawsuit.” When HHS Regional Director Johnson visited Idaho, she told BW that she hoped Wasden would “slow down and take a deep breath before proceeding.” When BW asked Wasden to comment, he chuckled. “Coming from you, that’s hearsay. But I’d be more than happy to meet with her in person.” Meanwhile, the lawsuit moves forward. But so does sweeping reform. WWW. B O I S E WE E KLY. C O M