Idaho’s poorest fare worst in state’s health care reform

[jtuck004]

Obamacare is coming, even to Idaho. While other states including Washington have worked for years to implement it, and now are unveiling comprehensive health coverage options for the uninsured, Idaho’s Republican-controlled state government tried for years to fight it. The long fight left a legacy: Tens of thousands of the poorest of Idaho’s poor will still be without affordable care under the Affordable Care Act.

On Oct. 1 the 222,533 Idahoans who have no health insurance will be able to go to a website and seek more comprehensive, affordable coverage than was available in the past. Federal law requires it, and federal taxes will pay for it.

But adults with incomes between 26 percent and 100 percent of the poverty level will be out of luck; no assistance will be available.
...

More [link:http://|http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/aug/11/idahos-poorest-fare-worst-in-states-health-care/here].

Idaho is just one of 27 states with varying problems (for those in poverty) around this issue.

Still amazes me that we (as a country) can't figure out we are shooting ourselves in the foot with those in poverty, after so many years of the failure of our tinkle-on economic policies. We give them not enough for food, and little assistance elsewhere. We could pay them $20,000, maybe $30,000 a year, say for three years of every 10, from the Treasury, less than we pay a few agricultural subsidies and assistance to wealthy bankers by my scratchy calculations. Virtually every single cent of that would go back into our economy to create demand, and thus jobs. Taxes would be paid, infrastructure could be built. But instead we throw out bogus arguments about "demotivating" and other such nonsense, rip large amounts of money out of the economy by paying it to crappy private vocational schools, for corporate subsidies, student loans that then work to deny access, subsidize rich bankers, profits, and then complain that there is no demand and point fingers at every excuse in sight.

There is a certainly a part of what is going on that we, again, as a country, deserve, because we have engineered it ourselves.

[Vanje]

1. Idaho's governor, uses Idaho's poor, as an "assett" to attract business

http://stateimpact.npr.org/idaho/2013/05/08/bottom-rung-gov-otter-touts-idahos-low-wages-to-attract-gun-companies/

[jtuck004]

5. Although I realize it would take an enlightened business owner, I would think many look

at the low income and thus the lack of educational attainment and other infrastructure and say "no thanks". Gun manufacturers, on the other hand, make a product which has almost become legend as a tool with which people can shoot themselves in the foot, so perhaps they are different.

[Vanje]

7. Additionally, Idaho poor, have among the shortest lifespans

in the nation.

Governor Butch Otter is well-known to be a bit of a dim bulb, so he may not have thought about the advantages for business in not having to pay retirement pensions for as many years.

Other states have the disadvantage of having retirees enjoy years of expensive retirement.

[libodem]

10. Thank you

For the grim report. So sad to live here.

[bhikkhu]

2. Here's a good article on that:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/07/06/2644815/medicaid-expansion-could-help.html

They could fix it any time they want, and I would expect voters at the state level to demand it. I'm in Oregon myself, which has been on board and planning for the ACA from the beginning. My family is right on the poverty line (though cost of living here is really low), and we'll be fully covered for the first year or two, depending on how they count the kids.

[Downwinder]

3. Did Idaho ever get included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act?

They got the bulk of the fallout and were left out.

[jtuck004]

4. Thie map at the link says they were covered...

http://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca.html

[Downwinder]

6. I knew there was a bill in 2005 to get them included.

I didn't know if it passed.

[IDemo]

8. It looks like they were included in name only

A documentary screening in Emmett will highlight Idaho downwinders' plight

Nine years ago, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo made a promise to victims of nuclear fallout from Cold War weapons testing in Nevada. Idaho had four of the five hardest-hit counties in the nation, and those residents were entitled to the same federal benefits paid to those in 21 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona, Crapo said.

When Crapo spoke at the band shell in Emmett City Park in 2004, the government had made "compassionate payments" of $50,000 to victims of 19 types of cancer, totalling $360 million under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

Now, the figure is $855 million. But not a dollar has been paid to Idaho downwinders, whose counties were not originally included by Congress because the extent of fallout was unknown.

"It's terribly frustrating because of the human impact," said Crapo, who has introduced a string of RECA expansion bills since 2005, none of which has received a hearing. "We haven't been able to get the appropriate level of national support to move it."

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/08/08/2696776/helping-idahos-downwinders.html

[Vanje]

9. I posted your OP in Idaho group.

cuz its interesting.
And its about Idaho.