HEALTH: Close coverage gap

This legislative session marks six years of inaction on Idaho’s coverage gap. Idaho legislators went home refusing to vote on a bill that would have addressed this issue.

The Idaho Health Care Plan (HB 464) would have made it possible for many Idahoans in the gap to have access to affordable health coverage. I am so disappointed that the Idaho House of Representatives let backroom discussions and politics prevent legislative action to help Idahoans, whose lives are on the line. Representative Scott and Representative Dixon have not proposed any meaningful solution to the coverage gap, even though three out of four Idahoans support action.

I am in the coverage gap and I have always been active and healthy. Yet, there are times even the healthiest individuals have medical emergencies beyond their control. My retina detached from my left eye last year, causing me to have multiple surgeries. It has left me in financial crisis about to lose everything I have built for myself.

Representative Scott and Representative Dixon should consider what if their own families or loved ones fell into the gap? I hope they maintain the responsibility of leaders who need to address Idaho’s very real and serious crisis of lack of access to affordable health coverage. Six years is long enough.

BRYN BALLENGER

Sandpoint