I am a pro-life dietitian which is why I’m voting yes on Proposition 2, Medicaid expansion.

Seventy-two thousand Idahoans don’t have access to a doctor. Approximately 400 hardworking Idahoans will die this year from completely treatable conditions because they lack access. The people who make less money can get Medicaid, those who make more can get subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, ACA. These Idahoans in the gap work too hard and make too much to get Medicaid, but insurance is priced out of their reach. Anyone who believes that human life is sacred must act to stop these deaths.

As a fiscal conservative I am also voting yes on Proposition 2. We have already payed for this health care when we pay our federal taxes. For years we have been paying for the expansion of Medicaid, but our governor and legislature would rather people die than accept what we already have paid for. Instead the state pays for an indigent care fund whose cost has varied over the last three years from just over $30 million to $56 million. Brad Little’s estimate is that Proposition’s 2 will cost $37 million a year is less than the average cost of the indigent fund, so we will save money. Medicaid expansion will cover all 72,000 Idahoans not just a few of them in emergency care.

Idahoans get the health care they have already paid for saving the state millions of dollars and 400 lives. Who can be against it?

MARY HALEY

Sandpoint