Here’s more of the testimony from this afternoon’s health coverage gap legislative hearing:

Dr. Jonathan Miller, an emergency medicine specialist at St. Alphonsus hospital and with the  Air National Guard, said, “I’m here to voice my concern over the 78,000 of our neighbors that lack coverage. As you know, people without health insurance, they still have health care. They get fractured, inefficient health care. They get it from me and my colleagues throughout the state. .. We are being forced to treat previously preventable diseases now at an end stage, which is much more difficult and much more costly.”

Tina DeBoer, who said she and her husband are “middle-class, overtaxed” small business owners in Canyon County, said she opposes Medicaid expansion because able-bodied people could get benefits. “It is our money,” she said, “our hard-working dollars being squandered by the governments who are supposed to be serving us. ... Incentives matter, and empower people to build a prosperous life.” She said expanding Medicaid would give people an incentive to keep their incomes down to qualify. “Please consider alternate solutions that empower people to be more active in their health care. … If you continue to grow government and increase people’s dependency, you take away their ability to create a prosperous life. … Stake out a different path and let Idaho lead the nation in health care innovation.”

Anna Rostock, a nurse from Boise, said, “Our community providers have been crippled by the inability of our patients living in the gap to access specialty care, behavioral health resources within the community, diagnostic imaging and prescription coverage. People are waiting to access medical care for their needs as late as they can, so they go to the ER. … Please consider closing the health care gap with a comprehensive plan that would provide the essential coverage needed for our patients in this gap.”