SECOND OPINIONS

When I was told in November of 2009 that I was in end stage kidney failure, I had a large group of top quality physicians presenting me with a solution: primary care doctors, surgeons, and kidney specialists all agreed that the best course of action was a kidney transplant. Not long after, I ran into a friend with whom I’d taken some college courses, and she was convinced that a transplant was a bad idea. She gave me a pamphlet about an alternative therapy involving herbs and other “natural remedies.” I read the pamphlet, but in the end, couldn’t give it the same consideration I gave to the opinions of my doctors. When I had a consensus of experts using facts and science, it hardly made sense to go with an ideologically based opinion which didn’t seem to have any strong evidence or concrete methodology behind it. Besides, it didn’t really offer a solution to the problem, just a way to put off a solution it didn’t like.

The case we’re encountering with the differing approaches to closing Utah’s healthcare coverage gap. The Healthy Utah plan is the result of two year’s worth of study and deliberation by top state and federal officials as well as the medical community and insurance industry. It fits research which has been conducted by Phds at the University of Utah and other credible organizations. It’s supported by top officials in both of Utah’s major political parties, and has been endorsed by dozens of local organizations ranging from medical groups such as the Utah Hospital Association, Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah Medical Center  to political, religious and business leaders . And it solves the problem of Utah’s coverage gap,  providing quality, comprehensive insurance coverage to those who do not qualify either for traditional Medicaid or premium assistance under the Affordable Care Act.

On the other hand, on the anti-Healthy Utah side of the spectrum, we have a much smaller and less impressively diverse group of spokespeople. Aside from the exclusively far right Republican legislators who support either another plan such as House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan’s “Utah Cares” plan, or doing nothing, the only organizations we hear speaking up are groups like the Sutherland Institute, which are admittedly ideologically based, and are therefore looking only to support ideas within their belief system. And even their actual proposals, such as Utah Cares, don’ actually provide access to quality, comprehensive healthcare coverage. They simply put off implementing a solution they don’t like, in this case Healthy Utah. 

There’s an enormous credibility gap between those who support Healthy Utah and those who oppose it. To follow the opposition would be like taking the advice of that pamphlet, and choosing not to pursue a kidney transplant and instead go for something that sounded less scary and more superficially convenient. But in both cases, this would not fix the problem, and the end result would be something all concerned parties would regret.