Doc: Lawmakers caused 1,000 deaths

Idaho lawmakers are responsible for the deaths of close to 1,000 Idahoans in the past three years because they’ve refused to expand Medicaid, the doctor who treated 36-year-old Jenny Steinke of Idaho Falls, who died of complications from asthma, told a panel of senators Tuesday. “Jenny’s case for me really crystallized what’s wrong here,” Dr. Kenneth Krell, director of critical care at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, as it held its first-ever hearing on legislation to expand Medicaid in Idaho. “And I kept asking myself, how could this be? How could, in a state like Idaho where we care about each other, could I be seeing deaths and really damaging illness on a nearly daily basis as a result of failure to expand Medicaid that cost tangible lives? It’s difficult to understand”/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here.

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