PROP 2: An ACA encore

The Nov. 6 election is important, not only in terms of whom we elect to office, but also with regard to how we vote on the propositions before us. As you may recall, Obamacare, aka the [Un]Affordable Care Act (ACA), was written into law at the federal level by Democrats. No one was exempt from its onerous dictates, nor its ever-increasing expense. President Trump and the Republican Congress freed us from the mandate to pay for unaffordable health insurance with extremely high deductibles that don’t really cover us for anything, except in extraordinary circumstances. In other words, our insurance premiums were a tax to cover the cost of subsidized medical insurance for other people.

Why is this relevant? Because one of the components of the ACA was to expand Medicaid to cover more people, thus increasing dependence upon the federal government. Our state legislators know that Medicaid expansion is unaffordable, so they have protected us. The political left, however, with $500 million from out-of-state political operatives, has put Proposition 2 on the ballot with the goal of fooling enough people to vote for it and override the wisdom of our Legislature, a body that spends most of its annual session grappling with state budget funding issues.

Don’t fall for it. We were lied to about the ACA, and Proposition 2 aims to cement a major component of the ACA into Idaho law so that we taxpayers are shackled into financing it. There is no free lunch.

NORMA WHITE

Athol