PROP 2: Reasons behind 'yes'

1. Medicaid expansion is fiscally responsible. Proposition 2 takes tax dollars we have already paid and, instead of sending them off to the federal government with no benefit to us, it uses these same dollars to insure some 60,000 Idahoans who cannot afford insurance. See No. 3 below about paying twice if we don’t do this!

2. These Idahoans are working so they make too much to qualify for regular Medicaid, but since most of them are minimum wage, they don’t make enough to pay their mortgage, car, child care, etc., plus insurance. And they don’t work at a facility that offers insurance. These are your hair stylists, mechanics, physical trainers and waiter/waitresses. They work hard and sometimes they work two jobs, but it doesn’t give them enough extra for insurance.

3. If they don’t go to the doctor and get preventive care when they become ill or have an emergency, sometimes this gets worse and develops into something more serious. If they become seriously ill (and it might have been cured with preventive treatment), then they go to the indigent fund and we pay for them twice.

4. Brad Little’s estimate is that Proposition 2 will cost $37 million a year. That is less than the average cost of the indigent fund; therefore, we save money! Medicaid expansion will cover all 60,000-72,000 Idahoans, not just a few of them in emergency care.

5. Idahoans get the health care they have already paid for, saving the state millions of dollars and 400 lives. Who can be against it?

VICKIE LOCKEN

Coeur d’Alene