{"id":862,"date":"2018-05-28T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T16:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=862"},"modified":"2018-05-28T09:30:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T16:30:33","slug":"open-letter-to-brad-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to Brad Little"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by David Rauzi, Idaho Free Press<\/p><\/div>\n

Dear Brad,<\/p>\n

I hear you say that you favor doing \u201csomething\u201d for Idahoans in \u201cThe Gap\u201d. These folks make less money than people who can go on the Idaho health insurance exchange (Your Health Idaho, YHI) so they can\u2019t afford health insurance. You presided over the bitter debates in the Idaho Senate about establishing YHI. Governor Otter bravely fought for this and continues to support it; do you? You know the current system where we pay for the uninsured through catastrophic care, but then liens are filed and they are bankrupt.\u00a0 Some even die for postponing their care. It\u2019s costing Idaho Counties tens of millions and The Idaho General Fund as much or more. I want to know your plan for getting health coverage for our working poor citizens, since you seem reluctant to support the Medicaid Expansion Initiative.<\/p>\n

I know you know the numbers. You know how much Medicaid Expansion would mean to rural hospitals and clinics. So explain to me why more expensive half-measures like PCAP<\/a> or this year\u2019s double waiver plans<\/a> make sense to you. You supported these plans, but you say you didn\u2019t support the Medicaid Expansion Initiative, which covers more people and costs Idaho taxpayers less. You didn\u2019t sign the petition.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read your support for returning to the High Risk Pool model, where we tax all health insurance premiums to pay for those who can\u2019t get health insurance. Before the ACA when preexisting conditions were a reason to be denied health insurance, they seemed a reasonable solution. The goal was to get everybody covered by a health insurance plan, as it should be. Explain to me why this is a better option than Medicaid Expansion.<\/p>\n

Maybe you aren\u2019t willing to fight the well-funded and very vocal far-right Freedom Foundation who believes only \u201cfree market\u201d health care solutions should be considered. That YHI fight in the legislature sure was bitter. But Idahoans flocked to the exchange to buy health insurance. And county indigent and state Catastrophic costs plummeted. It was a hard fight, but I think it was worth it.<\/p>\n

Governor Otter has appointed at least three \u201cadvisory panels\u201d on health care since 2007 and all have made recommendations to promote universal health insurance coverage in Idaho. He also had two \u201cwork groups\u201d who recommended Medicaid coverage be expanded. So Governor Otter has had plenty of hand-picked groups give him advice neither he nor the legislature was willing to act on. Is this your plan too?<\/p>\n

To be fair, Governor Otter has followed the advice of one group to promote medical education in Idaho. He supported it with budget recommendations. He also followed the advice to work on changing health care delivery through promoting the Primary Care Medical Home Model for Idaho. And Idaho is in the middle of rolling out a State Health Innovation Plan, designed to reform delivery and payment methods for the state. If \u201cMedicaid is broken\u201d, as I have heard in the Idaho statehouse, let\u2019s work to fix it.<\/p>\n

Director Cameron\u2019s innovative suggestion to move high-cost patients with certain diagnoses onto Medicaid to lower private insurance costs shows Otter\u2019s appointees can think outside the box.<\/p>\n

It looks like Idaho could be poised for some dramatic and innovative health care changes. States could lead with health care innovation. I believe expanding Medicaid eligibility fits well with these. Why don\u2019t you? Let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Brad, I hear you say that you favor doing \u201csomething\u201d for Idahoans in \u201cThe Gap\u201d. These folks make less money than people who can go on the Idaho health insurance exchange (Your Health Idaho, YHI) so they can\u2019t afford … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}