As Winston Churchill noted, “Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have” and if this statement has any element of truth, it is reasonable to assume that healthy Montana citizens should be high on the minds of all of our state legislators.  

However, it appears that some are willing to put politics above the health and fianancial needs of 70,000 uninsured Montanans and ignore the potential creation of 12,000 well-paying jobs for their unemployed constituents. 

As Gov. Bullock stated in his recent State of the State address, legislators do not have to worry about the costs of health care; the state subsidizes their care. Is it too much to ask that our Montana legislators put politics aside and use the laws of the land to help provide the same oppurtunity to as many of Montana’s less fortunate citizens as is possible? 

Our clinics and hospitals, that we all depend on with or without insurance, especially those in rural Montana, would certainly appreciate a show of support in passing Medicaid expansion in Montana. It is the right thing to do. Health is a basic need. —Craig McClure, Polson