Having read Mr. Neal Larson’s nebulous article: Medicaid expansion is “fraudulent compassion,” I offer a contrary position. Idaho has some of the lowest wages in America, and many employers do not provide health insurance. Due to passage of Proposition 2, Idaho’s government may finally expand health care to more of Idaho’s hard working citizens.

Extending Medicaid would complement the coverages offered by the Affordable Care Act passed into law during President Barack Obama’s tenure. Obama wanted uniform health care, but he had to compromise with Congress due to the influence of special interests.

A clear solution exists to the health care crisis financially crippling American businesses and citizens: adopt Medicaid for all Americans. Medicaid is the best health insurance in America and uniform adoption will fix health care. In the interim, failing to implement Proposition 2 would be unbridled cruelty. Mr. Larson’s term “fraudulent compassion,” though vague, suggests implementation of Medicaid would be Marxism (Communism), which is nonsense.

England and France have uniform national health care systems — are they Communist? How about the capitalist Northern European nations with the highest standards of living in the world that all provide uniform health care? These countries have affordable coverage through progressive taxation and efficient operation. Please give us facts Mr. Larson, not propaganda.

U.S. health care is the most expensive in the world, yet it fails miserably in the delivery of effective service when compared to the entire industrialized world. There are third world nations with better working health care than America. We need uniform Medicaid for all Americans, not just the one in five currently covered.

A recent lawsuit filed by the Idaho Freedom Foundation that seeks to prevent Medicaid expansion is misguided. The Association ought to be suing for expansion of Medicaid for all Idahoans. Lawsuits are wasteful, and this silly suit is being advanced to deny health care for Idaho’s hard working citizens. The overwhelming majority of Idahoans clearly do not support their cruel mission.

I am an attorney who used to handle lawsuits. These days I work as an insurance claim consultant and mediator. I no longer file suits as I strive to resolve claims outside of litigation, and if that isn’t possible, I end lawsuits through mediation. My practice helps Idahoans with health insurance issues, and I also help claimants to pursue benefits owed in their policies. It’s no surprise that our state’s poorly regulated insurance industry often allows policies to be sold that provide deceptive coverages. My work has provided an eye-opening education into an insurance system that often deceives and mistreats claimants who are already reeling from sickness and injuries.

My extensive experience with this system became personal when I recently experienced a freak accident on my deck. I slipped on our first frost and flew like Superman without a cape. The landing fractured two bones in my left arm. I now sport a permanent metal plate and seven screws in my left arm, and the medical charges are nearing $30,000 (with no hospitalization).

I was 7 when I broke this same arm while trying to attach a final wall to a treehouse my father had been building when he was hospitalized. The cost of treatment and casting was less than $100. I threw up on the doctor because I was a frightened child. My recent experience with our costly, fragmented health care system almost caused me to throw up again. I was finally treated at the second facility I visited when it was determined my doctor would actually be paid by Blue Cross. Mind you, my arm was crooked and I had a gashed head. As many Americans ruefully know, you get seen in the emergency room, but when it comes to surgery I had to prepay $4,470 to straighten my arm.

Regardless, I felt lucky because I have insurance coverage due to passage of the ACA. I was bare for three years before the ACA’s adoption because of a pre-existing condition. The insurance companies refused to insure me for my hereditary condition although I had never missed a day of work from its impact. In total, I am paying $7,300 in deductibles for my recent accident, assuming my health insurance company pays the balance, and they are already trying to screw me. I had good credit and was able to obtain an increase in my home equity line to pay the medical bills — many Americans would be financially buried by similar expenses — welcome to health care in America.

Similar exorbitant costs overwhelm Americans when they get sick, except for Congress, which has separate quality coverage provided by the American taxpayers (no surprise there). It is pathetic how Congress protects itself but does little to help the American people.

Properly implemented, Medicaid would protect the health of all Americans, who could then change jobs and pursue other opportunities without fearing the loss of health insurance. Adoption of Medicaid for all American businesses and individuals would free them from the crushing cost of health insurance. Released from this obligation, most employers would be able to pay increased taxes toward supporting health care as would individuals, and the net cost for efficient, quality coverage would be significantly lower.

It bears repeating, Medicaid is the best insurance coverage in America. It offers extensive benefits that are better than virtually all private insurance policies. We all deserve to have this comprehensive coverage along with underpaid workers and the destitute. The irony is that you have to be poor or struggling financially to obtain the best health care in America.

A con man is currently president of the United States. Trump promised us that he was going to fix our broken health care system, and he claimed we would have better coverages at lower costs. Instead, this compulsive liar has done everything possible in his brief time in office to dismantle the benefits Americans obtained when the ACA became law. If Trump isn’t removed before the next election, it is time to throw him out of office regardless of whether he obstructed justice, scammed with Russians to launder money, or stole the election (he acts guilty on all charges).

Special interests and politicians who need absurd amounts of money to get elected are the primary reasons our health care system is broken. We can remedy this situation through informed voting, and it is time to elect politicians who care for all Americans, not just the rich and powerful.

An encouraging sign during this recent election cycle is that citizens in other states also voted to expand Medicaid for their lower income residents. Apparently many Americans are tired of seeing their fellow citizens struggling to obtain affordable health care; that is sincere compassion.

Our country needs Medicaid with controlled prices. For example, a relative of mine suffers from a cruel and disabling disease (MS). Due to the risk of severe side effects from medicines that had to be injected daily, she was prescribed a medicine newly brought into the US. This medicine had been used effectively in Europe for 20 years. This drug isn’t expensive to make, and a prescription sells in Amsterdam, one of the most expensive cities in the world, for $1,200 a year. Having done the necessary drug studies in the U.S., a pharmaceutical company was granted an exclusive license to market the drug in the U.S. This company offered the medicine to U.S. consumers and the insurance industry for $56,000 a year per prescription; that is highway robbery.

Most Americans are traumatized by these heartless companies who operate with the complicit aid of Congress. Special interests have gouged Americans for years, and they should reap their reward for thievery through Medicaid controls. The federal politicians who take special-interest money should also be dispatched by the voters. Idaho has its share of these politicians, and they need to be called out and “fired” in future elections. As they say, follow the money.

A uniform system of Medicaid would help to control frivolous malpractice suits. Idaho has conservative restrictions upon the amounts injured parties can recover for medical malpractice. Other states do not enjoy these protections and allow massive damages. Because of this some attorneys and their clients effectively win “medical lotteries” that devastate physicians. Reasonable, uniform compensation for clear malpractice should be a part of the nationwide Medicaid system and would lower the cost of medicine.

This lottery abuse against doctors and other inequities could be eliminated through proper controls under Medicaid. Other inequities include: 1.) outrageous charges by hospitals for basic services; 2.) excessive fees charged by specialist doctors (certain areas of medicine are a road to riches); 3.) gross insurance company profits that go to stockholders and overpaid CEOs; 4.) exorbitant pharmaceutical charges already discussed, and more.

Compensation for medical salaries currently needs to be reasonably high given the cost of training in America and doctor overhead, but should specialists be making millions of dollars to provide a basic need to Americans? Similar doctors in other countries, with uniform health care, do not profit excessively from their citizens. Adoption of uniform Medicaid would lower medical overhead allowing doctors to charge less. (I will address the high cost of education in a future column).

Mr. Larson advocates for more unfettered greed to save us from Communism. Do us a favor Mr. Larson — stuff your fraudulent compassion where the sun doesn’t shine. Kudos to our citizens who studied the issue and spoke through compassionate ballots.

Idaho’s derelict politicians are finally getting on board with expanding Medicaid to help more of Idaho’s citizens. Where was their support during the past seven years for Idahoans who have been suffering, and yes, dying? Leadership from Gov. “Butch” Otter was nonexistent. Our newly elected politicians and governor will proceed at their future elective peril if they fail to implement expanded quality health care in Idaho.

You can only favor the rich so long through regressive taxation before our system collapses. We are saddling current and future Americans with incredible amounts of debt as we borrow vast amounts of money. Much of that money is being redistributed to the rich through our regressive tax system which is “voodoo economics.” Obama presided over eight years of continuous, stable growth after having taken over when America was in economic free-fall (people have forgotten how bad it was). The U.S. government continues to spend recklessly using the biggest credit card in world history, and the middle class will eventually pay dearly for this reckless borrowing.

Our nation should reject these failed policies — President Ronald Reagan’s trickle down theory has been a colossal failure, and it continues to fuel the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich in world history. His policies were intensified by the tax rip-off “Trump’s Congress” recently foisted upon the American public. The president and his cronies aren’t stupid — you toss a carrot to the middle class while you allow the rich to continue stuffing their bags with gold; it’s an old con game.

The destruction of the middle class isn’t due to immigrants taking low-paying jobs most Americans refuse to do. It’s the ongoing regressive transfer of wealth, and we will wake up one day to life in a third world country without a middle class. Isn’t it time to do something about this problem, and save our great nation before it’s too late?

Call me a socialist — I don’t care. Capitalism, with a strong “social” safety net, produces the healthiest nations in the world, and if we fix our tax system and create uniform, efficient health care, the United States will have quality, affordable health care and money to improve Social Security.

Congress should do what is right for the majority of Americans. However, most U.S. senators come from the upper echelon of American society and it is crystal clear who they protect. Americans need to support future candidates who will strengthen our nation, rather than sell out for campaign funds.

Thank you my fellow Idahoans for exercising compassion at the ballot box. We need more selflessness and compassion like that in the United States. When all Americans have uniform, affordable, quality health care, we will be a healthier nation. Please reject the selfishness and unbridled cruelty that you advocate for Mr. Larson. Armed with facts, rather than your propaganda, the Christ you purport to speak for would fully support that kind of selfless compassion.

Jesse Robison is a Pocatello native who has lived in Mexico and other places. He was educated at Idaho State University and University of Idaho. Robison works as a mediator and insurance law consultant, but his passion is public art. He has spearheaded numerous art improvements throughout Pocatello, including the Japanese garden located at Pocatello Regional Airport, and he serves on the Bistline Foundation. Robison currently resides in Pocatello.