Video Clips

Quoted moments from Alaska public meetings, hearings, and press conferences.

Clips from Alaska Department of HealthClear

Deb Etheridge

“If we're between 8 and 10%, the cost to Alaska will be 32 or almost $33 million. And then if we're at 50% or more, the cost to the state of Alaska in 2030 will be $49 million.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:20

Deb Etheridge

“I think I've identified the 6%, the largest error that we're making right now, and we're making a plan for correction for that. So it's my goal to have our error rate down by next year.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:12

Zack Fields “the Governor slashed dozens of positions from the department several years ago. We actually funded half of them because we knew it would produce delays in error rates. The Governor then vetoed those positions.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:26

Deb Etheridge

“a person was exempt from the ABOD requirements if they had a child under the age of 18. That changed to, for households having a child under the age of 14. Prior categorical exemptions were veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and certain former foster care youth. These categories are no longer independently qualify.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:36

Forrest Dunbar “it makes financial sense for us if we can get under 5%, we can save $49 million to the state, to the people of Alaska. And so if it takes significant additional staffing to get us under that 5%, um, please come to the Health Committee and to Legislature as a whole and our Finance Committee and make those asks.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:27

Deb Etheridge

“In 2024, it was 24%, and '25 is 23.1%.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:08

Emily Ricci “So, but those costs are limited to costs incurred in a 72-hour period. So they're not comprehensive.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:12

Emily Ricci “Effective October 1st, certain noncitizens who had been eligible for federally funded Medicaid benefits became no longer eligible for those benefits as a result of HR 1.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:16

Justin Ruffridge “what is the— if a person loses coverage under this H.R. 1, Uh, what, what is the options for them? And is that something that the department is working on with people if they lose coverage?”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:10

Emily Ricci “We estimate around 40,000 Alaskans will move from a 12-month renewal cycle to a 6-month renewal cycle effective January 1.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:33

Genevieve Mina “with the updated numbers from this slide, which says 12,850 Alaskans that would be subject to these requirements, that's about 6,000 Alaskans lower than the Menat Report.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:41

Matt Claman “we had some discussion in the last few months about factors that caused Alaska to have a, for lack of a better description, a statistically unrealistic error rate compared to other states and that we were essentially at a disadvantage on the error rate that should be corrected”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:16

Emily Ricci “However, beginning January 1st, 2027, individuals in the Medicaid expansion population will have their renewal period shortened from 12 months to 6 months.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:11

Deb Etheridge

“So at 5%, if our error rate's between 6 and 8%, the cost to the state of Alaska in 2030 would be about $16 million.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:18

Rebecca Schwanke “my understanding is Alaska has the highest error rate. I, I find that absolutely unacceptable. I don't understand why it hasn't been brought down in a more significant manner over the last couple years.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:47

Deb Etheridge

“We operate our SNAP program in our legacy system which is called EIS, Eligibility Information System, that those changes really prevented us from success in implementing on the administrative side of the world.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:19

Emily Ricci “So individuals who would maybe otherwise not be eligible for Medicaid as a result of this would still remain eligible for emergency Medicaid, which means that emergency Medicaid— Medicaid could cover their costs if they are incurred in an emergency room or if they are associated with labor and delivery.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:55

Heidi Hedberg “we are working in earnest to drive down this payment error rate, and it is predicated that we have functioning IT modernization systems, that our staff are trained, and that we have that quality improvement process set up so we're identifying where errors are happening at the root cause”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:11

Emily Ricci “So we have submitted that to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and have requested an extension to January 1, 2028. So we are awaiting approval for that right now.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:44

Deb Etheridge

“the cost share for the administration of the SNAP program transitioned from formerly being a 50% federal reimbursement and a 50% state investment, and after the bill, it changed to 25% federal, 75% state investment.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:39

Emily Ricci “But as of October 1st, about 775 individuals were disenrolled from the Medicaid program. 200 Individuals were determined to remain eligible. Under the Medicaid program after October 1st, and the majority of those disenrollies were actually children. It's about 400, just over 400 children.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:47

Emily Ricci “in total, based on data that we have today, we were able to identify almost 79% of the Medicaid expansion population would qualify for an exclusion and an exception or would meet the existing work requirements.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:30

Emily Ricci “Beginning January 1st, HR1 changes the retroactive eligibility period and shortens it to 60 days for most adults who are covered through Medicaid and kids, and then 30 days for adults who are in the Medicaid expansion population.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

1:08

Deb Etheridge

“we have— yes, we have 2 areas in which we've been able to increase staff. The legislature appropriated or funded 15 eligibility technician positions that we've put forward, and we have operationalized a virtual contact center”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:16

Zack Fields “this bill is intentionally cruel, expensive to the state of Alaska, expensive to all of us who have health insurance. It'll be expensive to the state that way. It seems intentionally designed to sabotage Medicaid.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:13

Emily Ricci “For individuals who are disenrolled from Medicaid as a result of either noncitizen coverage or work and community engagement requirements, they are not eligible for any of the subsidies through the Federally Facilitated place.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:26

Forrest Dunbar “if it takes additional staff to get us from 15 to 10 or 10 to 5, if you look at Delta here, that could be $30 million. And so it makes financial sense for the state of Alaska to hire $10 or $20 million worth of additional staff if it can save us $30 million.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:48

Deb Etheridge

“I think the highest error rate was around 60%. And now we're projecting, it's not state-reported and not finalized, but for 2026 we're looking at about an 18% error rate.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:07

Andrew Gray “I'm thinking about so many patients in Anchorage who cannot afford any care at all. They cannot be seen.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:14

Andrew Gray “it just seems to me that the additional work burden on everyone requiring probably additional employees just means that this is a, a bill that's going to grow government.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:24

Deb Etheridge

“previous rule for the age range was 18 to 54. Those were the able-bodied adults, which means that they are, if they're not working or not in compliance, they can only receive 3 months of SNAP benefits. Under HR 1, the age range changes to 18 to 64.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:34

Löki Tobin “We know that 1 in 10 veterans were covered through Medicaid, especially those who may not qualify for VA services, or they may have combined their Medicaid services with other forms of health insurance.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:30

Deb Etheridge

“The State of Alaska applied for a good faith waiver. Representative Mina had mentioned it, and we received a good faith waiver for implementing these changes for 1 year. We have subsequently asked for an additional year for this good faith waiver and we have been granted that waiver.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:44

Emily Ricci “the total Medicaid enrollee population right now is just under 200,000, and the baseline Medicaid expansion enrollment is about 57,000 Alaskans.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:05

Emily Ricci “It would be uncompensated care. I do not believe there would be a payer for that care outside of the individual themselves.”

Alaska Legislature: Special Coverage - November 10, 2026 1:00pm · Nov 10, 2026

0:31

Candice McDaniel

“these will be smaller Zoom conversations, generally about 5 to 15 participants plus facilitators, and it'll run 1 to 2 hours depending upon the subject. We expect to begin in January with sessions planned through March.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:38

Candice McDaniel

“First, we're going to look at Alaska's current methodologies and how other states approach these reviews, not to simply copy another state's model, but to identify approaches that may be useful for Alaska's planning needs. And then we want to hear from you through the survey, through listening session and focus groups.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:11

Jared Kosin “with the change in administrations, was there someone— they said, why now? This feels really strange at the tail end of an administration.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:41

Mattie Dawson

“Our current review standards and methodologies were adopted in 2005, so more than 20 years ago. A lot has changed in how healthcare is delivered since then, and we want the tools we use to assess need to better reflect the modern healthcare landscape that exists today.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:28

Candice McDaniel

“We expect the main survey to take about 30 minutes or less. If you choose to answer those additional open-ended questions, you may want to allow a little more time. And one point worth emphasizing here, more than one person from an organization can respond.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:18

Nicole Lebo

“we're, that's the role of government, right? There are administrative changes and we're going to continue to do our projects and the work that we need to do. And this one is long overdue. So why now is like, thank goodness.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:53

Nicole Lebo

“we have waited for a long time to, to move forward on learning about this one aspect of the CON program. And we are interested in taking I don't feel like the word rush to, first of all, describes our trajectory. I think that we're going to— we have a planful and process to gather some input and information to continue to update relevant people on what the draft methodology and alterations could look like, as well as then we're not even thinking about having any sort of regulatory suggestions until the, you know, we're in state fiscal year '28.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:12

Jared Kosin “Why would we rush to do this now and not wait to see who's coming in?”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:45

Mattie Dawson

“Certificate of Need is a healthcare planning and regulatory program established under Alaska statutes and state regulations. The idea behind CON is to look at proposed healthcare projects in the context of community need, considering access to care, existing services, and the resources needed to support those services.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:38

Candice McDaniel

“we're starting with today's kickoff, and the survey is planned to open tomorrow, October 30th, and then stay open through November 13th. We're tentatively planning a listening session for December 10th. During December, we'll also review the survey responses and identify the themes that will help shape the focus groups. Those smaller discussions are planned for January through March, and then in May we'll come back together for a webinar to share what we've heard, gather feedback before finalizing those recommendations in June.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:29

Nicole Lebo

“the purpose and the focus of the project is to gather input to modernize the adopted-by-reference methodology materials and the associated documents that inform the CON application process. As a note, full statute changes as well as wholesale regulatory changes are beyond the scope of the work at this time.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:44

Mattie Dawson

“generally the requirement applies to projects with expenditures of $1.5 million or more for construction, renovation, or expansion of a healthcare facility, changes in bed capacity, or the addition of a category of health services. Additionally, if you're converting a building or part of one into a nursing home, that also requires Certificate of Need regardless of cost.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

0:23

Candice McDaniel

“We're again tentatively planning for December 10th over Zoom and expect it to last 1 to 2 hours depending on participation.”

Alaska Dept. of Health: Alaska Certificate of Need Modernization Project Kickoff Meeting (October 29, 2026) · Oct 30, 2026

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