Off and on for several years now, my party has been raving about the possibility of “death panels” (e.g., Gov. Palin [Krauthammer, Wn. Post, 21 Aug 2009]). They were right. One could say death panels are here now. They are the state legislatures and administrations who have rejected the Medicaid gap expansion. For example, some estimates of unnecessary deaths of poor Idahoans due to the Legislature’s failure to enact the Medicaid expansion are 590/yr [Ferguson, Post Register, 24 Mar 2013] and 811/yr [Krell, Post Register, 29 Nov. 2015]. How many years have they rejected saving Idaho lives? My weak memory thinks three or more. Three years x 811/yr = about 2400 people and counting.
As a start, apparently there are about 78,000 poor Idahoans in this gap. My recommendation is that those of voting age among them (and all compassionate conservatives) vote against their current legislators in the upcoming primary and general elections if those legislators have not voted to pass the Medicaid expansion by then. Throw the (heartless) rascals out.
Donald M. McEligot, Idaho Falls
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