After a narrow defeat over the summer, the Republican Party's unpopular effort to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act has risen once again like the villain in a bad horror movie. While Americans overwhelmingly support a bipartisan fix, members of the GOP Congress seem to remain obsessed.
While the Cassidy-Graham bill may look good on paper, it's bad for Utah. Bad because it would put control over the funding of vital programs like Medicaid in the hands of the Utah State Legislature. This same legislature has continuously proven it can't be trusted with the health care of those in need by turning down tens of millions of our taxpayer dollars for Medicaid expansion, just to make a political point. Their own woefully inadequate "Utah solution" ignores working poor families and covers even fewer people than originally stated. If they are given control we can expect them to cut subsidies and eliminate consumer protections like deductible caps. We'd see cuts to maternity care and coverage for people with disabilities. And our deductibles and premiums would spike.
We cannot trust Utah's lawmakers to put people ahead of partisan politics and protect our right to affordable, quality health care. It's important that we send a message to Gov. Herbert that we oppose this bill.
Paul Gibbs,
West Valley City