Idaho plan a lose-lose

Gov. Butch Otter has proposed a limited, $30 million health insurance plan for Idahoans too poor to qualify for Affordable Care Act insurance, or have incomes too high to qualify for traditional Medicaid. This proposed plan lacks coverage for hospitalizations, emergency room visits and “specialty services.”

It is not clear if the latter means no insurance for seeing specialists and/or receiving high-end radiology services (i.e., MRIs, CT scans, etc). If these are excluded, then this is very inadequate coverage.

The real issue is the refusal by the Idaho Legislature and the governor to sign up for the ACA’s “new Medicaid” program. This is done in the name of their continued dislike for Obamacare. This stubbornness (and fiscal irresponsibility) results in higher state income and property taxes for all taxpaying Idahoans.

Currently, medical services for those who fall through the cracks and are uninsured are covered by our state income and property taxes, while our federal income taxes pay for funding the ACA’s new Medicaid in other states. Yet Idaho receives none of this thanks to our misguided state legislators.

Idaho must stop rationing health care by the ability to pay and, simultaneously, lower our state and county taxes.

Ray Newcombe, M.D.

Bayview, Idaho