Betsy Russell reports that one of the biggest single budgets in state government, for Medicaid, will be pegged at $474.2 million in state funds for next year, $1.9 billion in total funds, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee decided this morning on a unanimous, 18-0 vote. That’s an 8.7 percent increase in state funding from this year, 5.7 percent in total funds, and includes the $1.55 million that’s being restored to Medicaid by reversing three of this year’s service cuts for disabled people on the program, as called for in a bill that passed the House yesterday. The restoration of that $1.55 million in state funds will bring $3.76 million in federal matching funds into Medicaid next year. The federal government funds more than 70 percent of Medicaid, Idaho’s health care program for the poor and disabled; the federal-funds portion of the Medicaid budget for next year is $1.2 billion. …