You Break It...

then what?

This is not designed for my liberal friends. I want to speak to my conservative ones. I have a few.

Okay, so we dismantle, dissolve, decapitate Medicaid. What to you propose to replace it?

This is the conversation all us Americans should be having. What should health care look like? Are you happy with what you’ve got? Is it our government’s role to even address this?

Besides the preamble “promote the general welfare” the Constitution does not address health care. They were just building a structure for governance back in 1787.

But we could. And we have.

Medicaid was enacted by Congress in 1965. States had to agree to enroll. Idaho enrolled in 1966. Back then I was 12 years old and living in Southern California. But Idaho had a Republican Governor (Smylie) and a Republican majority in both the Idaho House and Senate. And they voted to enroll in this program. Why? Ask yourself, you Republicans.

Nowadays, Idaho Republicans want to dismantle Medicaid. Maybe I do too. Our health care in this country could be so much better.

But they don’t talk about making the system better. They go back door. They cut taxes so now, they can pretend they can’t fund it. Imagine Speaker Mike Moyle with his hands up. “What can we do?” after he has coordinated five years of tax cuts.

I agree with him. What can we do?

Does the Medicaid program best suit our needs? It may not.

But they just want to break it. Can’t we talk about fixing it?

Here’s the Medicaid primer: States pay a share and the federal government pays a share for health insurance for low income and disabled people. The share is determined by a Federal Statutory formula. The maximum a state pays is 50%. Idaho pays 33%.

So if you don’t like the formula, can we talk about it?

But honestly, for all you Republicans out there, my conservative colleagues, it really is a fundamentally deeper question. Do you think we should all have health insurance?

I know this is a miniscule question when we are at “war”. But it’s actually what we should be talking about right now.

You Republicans have been portraying Medicaid as a liberal handout to lazy people who don’t work, don’t pull their weight.

My liberal buddies think health care should be free for all.

I disagree with you both.

I believe health care needs to be a system. We should design a good system. But we will need to agree on some principles for this system.

Since we haven’t had the courage to face this fundamental task, us liberals have given you Republicans room to talk about “work requirements” and “fraud”.

This is just political ping pong, and the American people are losing as we tap the ball back and forth.

So here, I want to speak to the general public, not Republican or Democrat.

Can we talk about how health care should be in our country?

Don’t tell me we can’t afford it. The United States spends almost twice what the next country in the world spends on health care. We can develop a very robust system.

Some people may lose. Some people may win. But we should all be better off. What we have stinks.

Republicans and the medical profession have long argued that getting government involved in health care is antithetical to our founding principles.

Except maybe when it has to do with abortion.

Or transgender care.

But here we are. Basic health care.

Yes, those painful issues will be involved. Take them off the table and start talking? I’m up for it.

Instead our Idaho Republicans just chip away at the 1960’s program we currently have that serves a lot of poor and disabled folks. That is just cruel.

If you want to dismantle Medicaid, break it, then let’s make a better program to fix the problem.

You break it, you fix it. I’m all in. Show me.