Rep. Kelley Packer of Legislative District 28 sent a formal letter to the Health and Welfare Committee pledging to vote against any funding that comes before the panel until a waiver program for medical gap coverage is presented to the full house for a vote. Once again Rep. Packer has shown that she is not qualified to do her job as she resorts to a hissy fit of non-voting instead of trying to solve the problem of healthcare for those 78,000 Idahoans who are not covered. She was joined in her denial of service to vote on important issues by Rep. Christy Perry, R- Nampa, and Carolyn Nilsson Troy, R- Genesee. If these representatives are not able to do the job they were elected to then it is time they resigned and allowed other more competent people to serve the citizens of Idaho.
Looking at the Idaho Freedom Foundations voting record of these three legislators one might ask the question, how did they get elected as conservative Republicans? It was not a week ago that Kelley Packer attacked the Idaho Freedom Foundation in the press for what she calls a skewed measurement for their Freedom Index for legislators voting records. When you are elected to office there are certain things that are expected of you and one is to do your job and solve problems not threaten to stall legislative actions because of the inability of the legislature to reach agreement on a problem.
We have enough bad legislation coming out of Washington these days and don’t need uncooperative Idaho legislators threating to block legislation because they are upset. The legislature was looking for a costly band-aid paid for by the taxpayers to fix this healthcare problem much like the State Healthcare Exchange which Representative Packer did vote for and it has only increased the cost of insurance premiums and deductibles by almost double since inception.
Dr. Jason West who is running against Kelley Packer in district 28 put’s it simply. “What we need is real reform that lowers costs, gives patients real choices, and doesn’t saddle taxpayers with a new entitlement. Until then, Idahoans will be forced to live under a system designed to benefit the special interest groups that fund my opponent.”
We have all seen how our state has been monopolized by just a few insurance companies and hospitals which seem to grow larger each and every year. What Idahoans really need is more transparency in the costs of medical care and opportunity to cross state lines to find insurance companies that will insure them at lower rates. The healthcare insurers and Medical Mafia Hospitals have controlled our medical care in Idaho for way too long and it is time to open up our state to competition and give Idahoans the freedom of choice not just in insurance but in the type of medical treatment they desire.
Idaho’s State Medical Board has played favorites with allopathic doctors and made Naturopaths and Chiropractors second class citizens in our state and they continue to use their legislative influence to slow down and even curtail the services they can provide to patients. The State Medical Board has used coercion and bullying tactics to keep qualified MD’s from associating themselves with these alternative and integrative practices for no practical reason, but to garner more patients and money for themselves. It’s time to stop these tactics to make sure Idahoans have access to whatever type of healthcare they desire and not be relegated to just allopathic medicine.
