Taucer letter: Cooper Court

The abrupt closing of Cooper Court in Boise coupled with the recent announcement by the Otter Administration that — though still dead set against accepting free federal money for an expansion of Medicaid for Idaho’s working poor, is instead offering a subsidy for Idaho’s uninsured of a whopping $32 dollars a month for health coverage — left me shaking my head.

I am wondering if my neighbors across the river in Idaho understand just how shortsighted and heartless these actions appear to an outside observer. Both of these events simply seem to me to be an indication of either a deep disdain for the poor, or a complete misreading of what it takes for our more unfortunate citizens to be able to begin to help themselves.

Kicking primarily mentally ill and unemployed or unemployable people into the streets in winter, and expecting them to fend for themselves, does not seem to me either humane or an effective way to combat homelessness. And rejecting tax money to assure that 78,000 people who are uninsured in Idaho get a modicum of basic health services, because the money comes from the federal government, not states, is neither reasonable nor compassionate.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 11:20 PM with the headline "Taucer letter: Cooper Court."