'Death by poverty' in Idaho

[LiberalArkie]

Idaho is one of the red states that refused Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that saved the law as a whole, but further politicized Medicaid and condemned millions of people to being without health insurance—and condemned some to death. Idahoan Jenny Steinke is dead, killed by an asthma attack, but more specifically killed by the Republican party. Steinke died on September 1, the day her husband's brand new insurance from the only job either of them has had that offered benefits kicked in. Steinke had been self-treating her asthma buy getting short-acting inhalers when she could from a community health clinic, and by buying extra short-acting inhalers from friends. Because she wasn't being treated regularly for her asthma, here's what she didn't know.

“Several times a week I see people who have delayed medical care because they don’t have coverage, either Medicaid or insurance,” said Ken Krell, director of critical care at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
“They put off being seen until it’s really dire,” he said. “It’s a very common occurrence.” […]

“With asthma, if you use the short-acting inhalers you get some relief,” Krell said. “But if you keep accelerating the use, the effect is shorter and shorter and eventually you become refractory to it.”

Jenny’s inhaler was no longer working. She would’ve soon started to feel like she was suffocating, Krell said. She walked next door to a retired neighbor she was friends with, Richard Kelley, and asked him to drive her to the hospital. She knew she was having an asthma attack, Kelley said, but hadn’t initially seemed overly distressed or out of breath.

Read More at Kos

[restorefreedom]

1. as long as the profits keep rolling in

our lives are meaningless

this is beyond shameful in 2015

[life long demo]

2. To me, this is just another reason why Idaho should be

tossed out of the US. The people pride themselves on being stupid. I apologize to anyone here who lives in Idaho. But the more I read or hear about this collection of spiteful, mean teaparty idiots, the less I believe they should be part of the US. IMHO

[Frank Cannon]

4. Idahoan here.

As someone who has lived in many states, red and blue, I can attest that I have never lived in a state with more fucking idiots per capita than Idaho. It is ingrained in their culture. And now all the wealthy transplants to Boise and Blaine County have now made it one of the most obnoxious states in the nation, as well.

[life long demo]

5. Thank you Frank, for confirming my gut feeling.

[IDemo]

3. Thank our illustrious governor, Butch Otter

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/04/21/160259/butch-otter-ends-medicaid/

Earlier this year, when the Idaho state legislature was considering an unconstitutional bill to nullify the Affordable Care Act, the state’s attorney general issued a stark warning against turning that bill into law. If Idaho passed a law refusing to comply with the Medicaid provisions of the ACA, it could opt itself out of Medicaid:

An additional legal ramification that must be considered as RS 20315 is contemplated is its effect on existing and future Idaho participation in the Medicaid Program. As a purely voluntary program, Idaho’s refusal to comply with the expanded provisions within the PPACA could potentially result in Idaho exiting the program and losing the existent federal matching funds. This could create a situation where individuals presently covered would no longer be covered, yet still require medical treatment, which likely would be required to be provided for and paid for through some non-federal means. This situation, in turn, could create an intense burden on the State’s budget.

Sadly, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) did not heed the attorney general’s warning. Although Otter vetoed a nullification bill attacking the ACA yesterday, he also issued an executive order which effectively forbids his state from participating in Medicaid as soon as the ACA goes into full effect.

Many think of Idaho as a staunchly Republican state, but the political sentiment here runs much closer to Libertarianism. Of course, that could be said about most repubs nowadays as well.