This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Becky Lockhart and the Republican leaders in the Utah House don't seem to understand the burden they are trying to place on people in the state of Utah with their rejection of Medicaid expansion.
I am already paying for the federal funding through things like the decreased deduction on my health savings account. They want me to pay for it again through my state taxes. Then, because I work at a hospital and its plan would leave so many without coverage, I would pay for it again in reduced pay to cover the losses to my hospital.
Why can't we just pay for the Medicaid expansion once as the ACA allows? Making me pay three times so that they can satisfy their political idealism is ridiculous. A little realism shows that their plan financially hurts all of us in Utah, including the uninsured.
Shelly Poole
Salt Lake City