Mr. Armstrong, you are just another of the crony bureaucrats who want to expand big government and the budget of the Dept. of Health and Welfare. I have yet to hear you stand up and complain about the continuing accelerating cost of medical care or the huge escalations of premiums for health insurance. Instead you complain that the stingy taxpayers are to blame for those with chronic problems in the Medicaid Gap. It was you who helped coerce our legislators in 2012 to vote for a State Healthcare Exchange where the cost of insurance was supposed to remain reasonable and affordable. What Happened Dick? Where is the reasonable affordability? Why have hospital costs soared to such high levels? Could it be because there is no transparency for those costs? I don’t hear you screaming about that problem. Why is it that the executives of Blue Cross, a supposed nonprofit company, do not have to disclose their compensation? Why are the citizens of Idaho going to be looking at another 27 percent increase in their premiums in 2017?
It appears that you have all of the answers in a tightly wrapped package called Medicaid Expansion. How about having all of the state employees including yourself pay for 50% of the cost of their healthcare insurance now covered by the taxpayers of Idaho? Bet you could raise a pretty penny for your Medicaid Expansion that way. Problem is I doubt you would be able to get it done as it would mean that you would have to give something up. You see the problem is that everyone wants something for nothing, and when they want it in government there is only one way to pay for it and that is with taxpayer money. I’m not sure if you ever took economics 101, but I suggest that you take a refresher course since you do not have a very good understanding about who is going to pay for Medicaid Expansion.
We the citizens of Idaho are sick and tired of paying for the ever escalating cost of big government in our state. It’s time to find a solution by cutting the cost of government to solve our problems, not charge the taxpayers more. Your solution is always the same, and we are not going to stand for it this time. Go back to the drawing board and get some people on the Medicaid committee who actually know something about the Medicaid GAP problem and who is involved in it, not a bunch of legislators who are going to sit around and talk the subject to death, but not resolve this problem. Bring in the Doctors and healthcare professionals in the districts most affected by this problem as they are the ones who would be more attuned to what is needed.
We know enough about Medicaid Expansion in other states to realize that if we accept 78,000 more patients it will be more like 150 to 160 thousand new enrollees most of whom are just going to run up the bill and expand your Health and Welfare Dept., and put more of a burden on our hospitals and doctors than we already have. There are approximately 22,000 chronic patients that need attention out of the 78,000 you talk about, and those are the ones that need to be taken care of but not through Medicaid Expansion. Here are some articles for you to read that might enlighten you.
- Time for a New Non-Legislative Team to Fix the Medicaid Gap Problem
- Here Comes a 27% rise in Health Insurance Premiums
- The Healthcare Solution Everyone Ignores: Prevention
“We Get the Government We Deserve”
