Idaho Mountain Express: ‘Ottercare’ is not ‘Obamacare’

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

‘Ottercare’ is not ‘Obamacare’

Wouldn’t you like to have healthcare insurance, too? I’m talking to minimum-wage workers not lucky enough to be covered by their employers, and self-employed farmers, artists, and single moms who can barely work enough hours to buy groceries and cover the rent.

Under The Affordable Care Act, the federal government will pay to expand Medicaid insurance to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($31,809 for a family of four). States gradually will pick up only 10 percent of the cost by 2020. No small business with 50 or fewer employees will be required to get insurance for their workers, and those with 25 employees or less who do decide to insure their workers will receive a tax subsidy for their generosity.

Sadly, we are dominated by Republicans who refuse to implement the Medicaid expansion, even though it is free to Idaho for three years and 90 percent free after that. They even balk at having an Insurance Exchange where employers can comparison shop for the best price and get a tax subsidy.

Instead, Governor Butch Otter commissioned a wasteful committee to “study the issue,” appointing insurance industry players and the likes of tea party zealot Wayne Hoffman with their preset partisan notions to cover his backside. Just call whatever we get Ottercare.

Sherrie Goff

Pocatello
viagra kaufen
comprar viagra
comprare viagra

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: