MEDICAID: Legislature should leave it alone

The PEOPLE of Idaho, through the essential CITIZEN’S INITIATIVE Process, won Medicaid expansion to provide essential medical care to ALL our residents and citizens in Idaho in 2020.

This was a hard-fought battle that the PEOPLE undertook to assure all Idahoans had access to decent medical care. I was personally involved in collecting the THOUSANDS of necessary signatures from my local neighbors to get this proposition on the ballot. The PEOPLE voted and approved that proposition, making it law. This expansion enabled all Idahoans to get medical care for COVID, when they needed it most.

Now, LEGISLATORS want to RIP THAT AWAY. 

Their plan is to cut access to Medicaid so they can fund other, less essential priorities — to use Medicaid as a piggy bank to fund tax cuts and private school vouchers.

Idaho Medicaid allows people with disabilities to live their most independent lives, allows families to access preventive care, helps ensure safe deliveries of healthy babies, helps seniors at their most vulnerable time, and saves families with medical emergencies from financial ruin.

Please write your legislators and ask that they protect this essential investment in our people from any cuts or proposals that threaten critical services. Remind them that cutting Medicaid will not endear them to the PEOPLE of Idaho, or to the voting constituents they are charged with representing when re-election times come. Ask them to OPPOSE any and all proposals to cut Medicaid funding and OPPOSE removing needy Idahoans from the Medicaid eligibility roles.  

ELIZABETH ROSE

Hayden