Sen. Julie VanOrden is set to enter her 8th legislative session when the 2027 legislature rolls around. While she still has to get through the general election, her 30th district is a reliably Republican district. She won her primary race with 60.4% of the Republican primary vote.
She is also the current Chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, as well as the Co-Chair of the Interim Medicaid Review Panel.
Moreover, because the House Health and Welfare Committee will likely have seven new members next year, as well as a new chair, much of the legislature’s institutional knowledge on health policy will reside with Sen. VanOrden and the committees she chairs.
In this interview, Sen. VanOrden discusses the fluid nature and scope of health policy in 2026.
“One of the big things that have been on people’s minds… is HR 1 is what it’s called, the “Big Beautiful Bill.” And the changes that are coming to Medicaid, through that. Mostly the work requirements. I think that’s giving a lot of participants in Medicaid anxiety.”
Her leadership as co-chair of the Medicaid Review Panel has allowed her to build a level of trust with other legislators as they work through some of the policy questions related to Idaho’s move to comprehensive managed care. The Panel has spent considerable time in private work sessions to get into the details and the “weeds” of what is coming from H345 and the policy to move to Medicaid managed care.
“I feel that Idaho is somewhat ahead of the game, even though we’re late coming to managed care because 42 other states have done it. But, about three years ago, we put together what is called the Medicaid Review Panel, which is a committee of legislators that wanted to review Medicaid contracts that were procured by our Dept. of Health and Welfare. So, we have used that tool to work through what we’re doing with comprehensive managed care.
In the end, this will be the biggest contract the state has ever procured. And the legislature will have been involved from beginning to end on this, which has never happened in our state before.”
She explains how and why the Panel divided up issues into two groups so that members could get their hands around the substance of the move to comprehensive Medicaid managed care. This is a result of the legislature’s adoption H345 in the 2025 legislative session.
“We wanted a safe space to be able to share our lack of knowledge, or what we knew about the topics. So, we did that and we split into two groups, and one group took a number of topics and another group took another group of topics. We kind of divvied them out because of the questions committee members has asked ahead of this time…
So, we split the groups according to what we thought, and we also gave people the opportunity to pick which group they wanted to be in. But, we knew we had to split them evenly so we wouldn’t have a quorum in each one.”
VanOrden started her legislative career in 2012 in the House, with a short break from 2018 to 2021 when she joined the Idaho Senate. When I asked how things have changed during her tenure in office, she noted that a change in the leadership style in the House has led to some tension between the two legislative chambers.
I think there was a lot of polarization… And it seemed like between the House and the Senate, the collaboration had changed a whole lot. To me, it felt like there was a lot more animosity towards each chamber, and that’s how it’s been.
It kind of makes me sad. I would like to see more collaboration between the two bodies because that’s what the citizens of Idaho have wanted.
Sen. VanOrden is also a member of our Convening Panel putting together the 2026 Idaho Health Policy Commons event.
Sen. VanOrden talked about her family’s farm where they grow potatoes and wheat. She also talked through how she has a “hobby” as a “competitive horse reigning – not racing.” I
“It’s kind of a hobby and a little job for myself because I have a horse breeding ‘little’ operation that I run… So, that’s what I do. I ride a horse twice a week, maybe take a lesson, and then I compete once a month from April to October.”
I got a chance to visit her “operation.” It isn’t “little.”
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