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1. There is no $400 million pile of Idaho cash in Washington just waiting to be claimed for the Medicaid expansion. In 2017 Idaho received $1.46 from the federal government for every $1 the state contributed in federal taxes. If Idaho expands Medicaid the funds aren’t “free.” Someone else is paying the tab. I would like to think that folks in North Idaho would prefer to pay their own way.

2. The costs of the expansion are vastly understated by those that endorse it. The number of 72,000 has been proposed as the number of individuals effected in Idaho. In California, triple the estimates applied. In Ohio, Washington and Kentucky, twice as many as estimated. Michigan and Minnesota — 50 percent applied over estimates. Montana is presently struggling to deal with their expansion costs. If this happens in Idaho, will we raise taxes or cut funding to schools, roads or public safety? In 2020, the states will have to absorb a full 10 percent of the cost of the expansion. As the costs increase, how long will it be before a federal government raises the percentage that the states are forced to pay? Maybe we just add the overages to the national debt. After all we just “owe the money to ourselves” so it really doesn’t matter? There is nothing “harder to kill” than a government entitlement program..

If there are any reasons to pass Prop 2 — fiscal sense isn’t one of them. Obamacare is “broken: Repeal it and replaced it with a market-based system that makes sense..

JEFF JOHNSON

Sandpoint