CHOOSING SIDES

by Paul Gibbs

In an August 10 op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune, former Representative Karen Shepard made the case for implementing Healthy Utah. It was a thoughtful, well-written article which incorporated all of the strengths of our position: facts, logic, and an appeal to decency. I was saddened to quickly see that most of the reader comments were critical of her position, not because they were against expansion, but because they were against the compromise of Healthy Utah. Rather than offering constructive ideas or solutions for making this happen, they merely took shots at Governor Gary Herbert.
In some of my recent posts I've come down pretty hard on conservatives who oppose expansion or Healthy Utah. This time my frustration is with liberal opposition. Anger or opposition directed at Governor Herbert is, in this instance, misplaced. He's not the opposition. Yes, I wish he had accepted full expansion when it was in his hands. He didn't. That's over. We can't change it. The issue now is convincing the legislature, not the Governor. This is a legislature which has repeatedly rejected full expansion, and is (in many cases) fighting tooth and nail against Healthy Utah. Getting anything past them is a serious challenge, but Healthy Utah is our best shot. We're not choosing between Healthy Utah and full expansion. We're choosing between Healthy Utah and doing nothing. Those of us who are out there fighting for this every day have enough stubborn, ideological opposition on the right. Giving it to us from the left does nothing but decrease or at least slow down our chances of helping anybody who is suffering in the coverage gap. The fact that you held out for what you thought was the best option isn't going to comfort a person who dies without healthcare because the proponents of closing the coverage gap were arguing amongst themselves. And it really bothers me to see Utah heroes who are doing all they can to fight for the people of our state criticized by people whose idea of activism is leaving anonymous snarky comments on a website.

Just as this issue isn't about whether or not people like Barack Obama, it isn't about whether or not they like Gary Herbert. Healthy Utah will bring as much money back to Utah and and cover as many people as full Medicaid expansion.  What we need now is to bring the money here and get people insured.

But, for those who absolutely can't bring themselves to support Healthy Utah, there is an option: a huge change in the make up of our legislature. But that's not going to happen easily. Are those who won't "settle" for Healthy Utah willing to go out there and throw themselves into campaigns they way we're throwing ourselves into the fight for Healthy Utah? If so, that's wonderful, I welcome their criticisms. If not, I hope they'll put some serious thought into whether they want to be a part of the problem or the solution.