DON'T FORGET WHAT MATTERS

by Paul Gibbs

Some fun and exciting events are going on in Utah over the next couple of weeks. Right now the Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, and next weekend we have Salt Lake Comic Con FanX. Anybody who really knows me knows what a movie geek I am, and I'm excited to be on some panels at FanX and possible meet Superman and Doctor Who. And I'm hoping to make it to at least one film at Sundance that really excites me (Experimenter, based on the same true story which inspired a short film, The Milgram Experiment, which won me my first award and played at a film festival I couldn't go to because I'd gotten a new kidney 3 days before). It's a fun and exciting time.


A lot of my life is based around the entertainment industry, and I'm not at all one to dismiss these things. Movies (both the serious, artistic kind celebrated at Sundance and the geeky, fun kind celebrated at FanX) are my life.  But it's disconcerting to me that I feel something much more important is in danger of getting lost in the shuffle: the upcoming Utah general legislative session. Obviously it's a lot less fun than Sundance or FanX, and we get a lot less excited about legislators than movie and TV stars (as someone who knows a lot of legislators, in many cases I understand and even agree with this). But this isn't just some boring, humdrum business as usual political event. This is when very important decisions will be made. In some cases, life and death decisions. And every single person who thinks they don't need to be bothered because there's nothing they can do about it is not only wrong, but dangerously wrong. We can do something about it. We have to do something about it.


While I'm deeply concerned with multiple issues likely to be dealt with at this year's session, obviously I'm most concerned about Healthy Utah. The fight to bring even reasonable access to healthcare to those in the coverage gap will almost certain come to its decision point within the next 50 days or so. There's a very real danger that instead of Healthy Utah, we'll get what Rep. Brian King called "Frail Utah" in an excellent op-ed in the Salt Lake Tribune: proposals by the majority of the Healthcare Reform Task Force which cover only roughly 1 tenth of  what Healthy Utah does, and keep over $2 billion in Utah tax payer money from coming back to our state. It's a plan which really is intended to give extremists the appearance of compassion while leaving tens of thousands of Utahns no hope but to pray they don't get sick. Ironically, perhaps the most prominent opponent of Medicaid expansion or Healthy Utah, former House Speaker Becky Lockhart, was diagnosed with a rare illness and then passed away between the 2014 session and this one. This heartbreaking tragedy underscores just how fragile health and life are, and how none of us can just rely on staying healthy.


 We can help tens of thousands of Utahns get a fair chance at healthcare. We can do it with our state's own money, and if we choose not to, we won't get 1 cent of that money back. But there's a very
real chance that we'll be passed up because of some stubborn legislators who think it's more important to deny a victory to the guy they didn't vote for.  Every reasonable person should be so outraged by this that it makes it hard for them to sleep at night. It doesn't matter what your ideology is.  But are we even paying attention? The instinct to choose to escape from reality rather than confront it is a natural and often necessary one. But at the wrong times it can be devastating to let what is pleasant distract us from what is important. All I'm asking is that everyone take even 1 minute to email, write or call a legislator. Even daring to risk offending someone with a Facebook status that says "I support Healthy Utah" is doing something. And if you've contacted one, contact another. The reason they can do this is because they don't expect us to get worked up or do anything about it. I and all of my fellow activists are dismissed by opponents as just a bunch of bleeding hearts whose opinions don't matter. They need to know it's not just us, it's not just activists, it's not just those who need insurance themselves, it's every Utahn who cares about their fellow human beings.

 There's nothing wrong with being caught up in the excitement of fun and exciting events. I love these things. We need these things. But we have to remember the big picture, too. Just devote a couple of minutes to Healthy Utah. That's all I ask. Because if we end up with "Frail Utah", people we know and love will be hurt by it along with everyone else. And we'll all have to ask ourselves if we did enough.

MY LETTER TO THE LEGISLATURE

  













The following letter is being sent to all 104 members of the Utah Senate and Utah House of Representatives.

 01/05/15

Dear Legislator,

In November of 2008, I went a check-up with a new primary care doctor. The appointment was far from routine. I was told that I had end stage kidney failure, and would need a kidney transplant.  That was scary enough. The fact that I had no health insurance (I worked part time, and divided the rest of my time between college and being a care giver for my niece and nephew) made it flat out terrifying.  I was lucky, because the generosity of friends and strangers was overwhelming. First of all, a good friend donated his kidney to me, then my friends teamed with generous organizations to raise $10,000  that would go towards my medical bills. As moving as astounding as this was, it wasn’t enough to get me the surgery. The transplant surgery itself cost $79,000.  My kidneys were in bad enough shape that a separate surgery to remove them was required. The medications I needed to keep my body from rejecting the kidney would cost roughly the same amount per month as rent on a one-bedroom apartment. In the end, I was able to receive this lifesaving surgery because of a great nation and state which has the wisdom and compassion to use programs such as Medicaid to help those who need it.               

Everybody who doesn’t have health insurance now deserves the same chance I had.  Because I believe this I have become an active supporter of and advocate for Governor Herbert’s Healthy Utah plan.  I have gotten to know many of the people in the coverage gap as I worked to tell their stories in my documentary film Entitled to Life. Tens of thousands of Utahns who fall within the “Medicaid Gap” are losing their health or their lives to the delay on expanding Medicaid, and we can help them by implementing Healthy Utah plan.  The suggestions of the Health Reform Task Force are insufficient and ineffective. Tens of thousands of needy Utahns will be left out, and as good as our charity care system is, it cannot provide them the specialty care they need. Take Stacy Stanford, one of the patients profiled in my film: she will remain without coverage for the same reason she can’t get disability Medicaid now: she can’t afford to get the diagnosis which documents the neurological condition which makes her “medically frail”. Charity care can’t get her this, for the reasons I’ve detailed above. Stacy is living proof that the “medically frail” options don’t work. Some have suggested that the Healthy Utah opponents in our legislature are heartless. I do not agree. They are decent, caring human beings. Their failing is that they are so blinded by ideology they refuse to see obvious facts staring them in the face. But the tragedy is that innocent people will suffer, because poverty and illness are immune to ideology.

            As a lifelong Utahn, and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I firmly believe that only Healthy Utah fits all of the criteria the Church set forth for a principled approach.  We are a state which values families, and the Christian concepts of justice and mercy. We can’t make families suffer for our political ideals, and a system which leaves tens of thousands of working Utahns without any access to real health coverage clearly doesn’t fit any reasonable definition of justice or mercy.  Please look into your heart and support Healthy Utah in the upcoming legislative session. It’s not about right and left, it’s about right and wrong.

Sincerely,
Paul Gibbs

                                                                   

HEROES WANTED

by Paul Gibbs

Remember near the end of the original Star Wars, when Han Solo was leaving before the battle of the Death Star? Just taking his money and running, because they didn't have a chance of winning and it wasn't his fight anyway? Is that we nearly every male (and many of the females) from my generation grew up wanting to be Han Solo? Of course not. If Han had left then he wouldn't be the idol of millions, he wouldn't have gotten Princess Leia, and instead of arguing who shot first, we'd be saying "Greedo should have aimed better". But Han came back, blasted the panels off of Vader's ship, and became a hero most of us still want to emulate. And yet, too often I fear we come closer to being the Han who very nearly weaseled out.

Some misinformed people are taking a defeatist view that Healthy Utah has no chance of passing because of the recommendations made by Darth Dunnigan and the Health Reform Rask Force. But that's not the case. That recommendation isn't binding. it has no hold on anyone. Any member of the legislature can still bring Healthy Utah to a vote, and I guarantee you that courageous legislators on both sides of the aisle,  like Rebecca Chavez-Houck, Brian Shiozawa, Brian King and Ray Ward aren't going to take the easy way out. The battle is for from over, and we can win. It's time to decide whether we're going to go into battle or shrug it off. I truly believe we can win this, but if we don't, I'll never have to wonder if I didn't do enough. Can you say the same? To be brutally honest, the biggest threat to Healthy Utah at this point isn't right wing extremism, it's liberal apathy. We complain about the way our state is run, but then shrug off chances to do something. If we fail, it will because not enough people who agreed with the cause were willing to fight for it.  No matter what I do for the rest of my life, I'll always know I was brave enough to stand up against powerful people to fight for what I knew was right. You can, too.

I appreciate the people coming to the SUPPORT HEALTHY UTAH VIDEO EVENT, but so far we don't have nearly as many as we need to make a statement which will get the legislature's attention. Please evaluate how important your other commitments really are. If you truly can be there, can you film your own statement? A video selfie on your cell phone is enough. But if we believe in this at all, you have to make the effort to do this. Every single person we have makes a difference, and so does every single person we don't.

If you record your own statement, contact me at bluestrekalives@gmail.com. I can get the footage and include it. Please help. Be on the side that stood up and fought.

WE NEED YOU THERE

by Paul Gibbs

One of the best possible chances we could have for convincing the legislature to pass Healthy Utah is public opinion. That's the dead horse I've been beating for months now, I know, but the situation is getting desperate and we're at the point when showing support is a now or never proposition.

I've decided to make a short  video of Utahns telling the legislature they support the full Healthy Utah plan, not the weak alternatives proposed by the Health Reform task Force, which will leave tens of thousands without insurance. Please attend the SUPPORT HEALTHY UTAH VIDEO EVENT on Saturday, January 10 and make your voice heard. IF we don't stand together on this the results will be devastating.

BAD DECISION DAY

by Paul Gibbs

December 18 was a spectacularly bad day for both compassion and common sense in Utah. In its final meeting for 2014, the Utah Healthcare Reform Taskforce chose to exclude Healthy Utah from their list of recommendations to the legislature for providing health care to people in the coverage gap. The options they did choose don't even accomplish the logical minimum goal of closing the gap. They help only a small percentage who qualify as "medically frail", leaving out tens of thousands of the working poor and throwing away huge amounts of Utah tax dollars. It would easily qualify the members of the committee who voted this way for the bad judgment hall of fame, yet co-chair Sen. Allen Christensen describes it as the "glass half full" approach. I would argue that the glass doesn't count as half full when you started with a full glass and poured out half of it out of it out of ignorance and spite.

Fortunately, this doesn't kill Health Utah. This was only a recommendation made by the task force, and we saw willingness from two Republicans  (Sen. Becky Edwards and Sen. Brian Shiozawa) to fight for what is morally and fiscally responsible. But it's a big setback, especially considering the crucial role Rep. Jim Dunnigan, the new House Majority Leader and co-chair of the taskforce, is expected to play in legislative process. Dunnigan is an insurance agent who is being called an "expert" by the legislature, and many have said they would go by what he supports. He has been working on the issue of healthcare in Utah for 10 years. Well, frankly, I'm not impressed with an "expert" who takes 8 years to work on an issue, gets a workable solution from the federal government, takes 2 more years to watch it get watered down, then chooses to take less money to help fewer people. This is a guy who has used the campaign slogan "Get it done again with Dunnigan"? Up until recently I thought Dunnigan would act as a moderating influence on the more extremist members of the task force. I thought he was essentially reasonable, and he seemed to be headed toward reluctant acceptance of Healthy Utah. I don't know if I was wrong, or if getting the House Majority Leader position made a change for the worse, but if this is the kind of leadership we can expect, he's going to be a crushing disappointment.

The two approaches suggested by the task force would cover between 12 and 20 percent of those below the poverty line, such as those who are mentally ill, addicted, or disabled, or too sick to work. While covering these people is of course necessary, it leaves out the majority in the gap. 66% of those in the gap work and can't get health insurance. Those people are left with no options. How does this accomplish the goal of encouraging "personal responsibility"? The task force is suggesting we punish people for working. This blatantly commits the Medicaid opponent's avowed cardinal sin of "encouraging dependence", because it leaves people no help once they're able to work. And, as suggested by stalwart supporter of the poor Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, we'll be adding to the "medically frail" by preventing those on the edge from getting preventative care.

I pray that you're shocked and outraged by this. I pray that you'll send and email to Rep. Dunnigan telling him how strongly you oppose this decision. I pray that compassion and wisdom will prevail. Because we just took a serious hit, and we need people to stand up, or tens of thousands of Utahns will be left out in the cold, betrayed by their own legislature.


DUNNIGAN'S EMAIL:
jdunnigan@le.utah.gov

THE "DEPENDENCE" DEBATE: THE BRIDGE TO SELF-RELIANCE

by Paul Gibbs

I believe in self-reliance. Both morally and as a matter of practicality, I don't being overly dependent on others is a good thing. It's not fair to them, and it's not good for you. But any good concept can be distorted. The distortion of the concept of self-reliance is the basis for one of the most common arguments used by opponents of Medicaid, Healthy Utah, or any government program of that nature, that it "promotes dependence". While there is no legitimate proof of or even evidence of this concept, it continues to be treated as if it were established fact by its adherents. And I'll admit there's at least a specious logic to part of it: the idea that once you get past a certain income level, you become ineligible for that kind of assistance, which motivates you not to get ahead. But if one is going go along with that thinking, it's inescapable that Healthy Utah, by eliminating the coverage gap, eliminates that motivation.

Let me explain this as a Q and A

Q: How are people dependent now?

A: Currently, a person who does qualify for Medicaid can lose that coverage by moving just slightly over the limit. It doesn't have to be enough to allow you to afford health insurance, mind you, just enough to go over an arbitrary limit on a piece of paper.

Q: What would Healthy Utah do about tto change that?

A: It would raise the income level required to get people off of coverage.

Q: But won't they just be able to move to move up a little higher, then still be stuck either making less money or giving up their insurance?

A: No, because then they can get coverage under the ACA.

Q: The what?

A: Obamacare.

Q: But Obamacare is bad.

A: Well, that's debatable, but love it or hate it's there and it's not going away. Because of Obamacare, when somebody makes too much to qualify for Healthy Utah they become eligible for subsidies that help them pay premiums, so there's no motivation not to move head.

Q:  But then won't they just want to stay where they are and not move off of Obamacare?

A: No, because to lose eligibility for that, it means they make enough to afford health insurance on their own. Healthy Utah completes a bridge that eliminates any need to avoid moving ahead just to keep what you have. It eliminates the motivation to be dependent.

Q: But if we didn't have these programs, people would just want to move ahead in the first place and we wouldn't need programs at all. Isn't that  the way to discourage dependence?

A: Uh . . . No. If that were the case we wouldn't have over 45,000 people in the coverage gap, they'd all have good jobs with good insurance. Motivation doesn't help much when there's no way to get what you need.

Q:  Huh.  But if you're already getting a free ride why move ahead?

A:  It's not a free ride. You pay small premiums, even with Healthy Utah. Besides. Healthy Utah and Obamacare don't buy your groceries, pay your rent or utilities, buy your clothes, your car, gas, or anything like that. It doesn't give you a free ride, it's just a safety net that gets people access to something they can't make it without.

Q:  Then how come I hate it so much?

A: I have no idea.


If anything, Healthy Utah (and yes, the big bad Affordable Care Act) help encourage and provide ways for people to be less dependent. There is a bridge to self -reliance, and right now that bridge is unfinished, with a huge gap in the middle. Let's close the gap and finish the bridge.

"GOD-GIVEN PRINCIPLES"

by Paul Gibbs


As a lifelong member and returned missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I was overjoyed by the presence of Presiding Bishop Gary E. Stevenson at the press conference announcing Utah governor Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah plan, and by the following statement issued by the Church:

"We recognize that providing adequate health care to individuals and families throughout Utah is a complex and weighty matter. It deserves the best thinking and efforts from both the public and the private sectors.

"While the economic and political realities are being debated, we hope the discussion and decisions taken in this matter will be consistent with the God-given principles regarding care for the poor and the needy that in the end benefit all of His children. We reaffirm the importance for individuals and families to be as self-sufficient as their particular circumstances allow and recognize that the lack of access to health care can impair a person's ability to provide for self and family.

"We commend public officials for their efforts to grapple with these difficult issues and pray for their success in finding solutions that reflect the highest aspirations of society."

Of course this doesn't constitute an official endorsement of Healthy Utah by the LDS Church, and it would be wholly inappropriate for me, as a member, to present it as such. It's a declaration of the LDS Church's beliefs and standards of caring for those in need, very much in line with the recent General Conference talk by Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, in which he charged members to do what they can to help. But, speaking only for myself, I believe that the only plan for closing the coverage gap currently under consideration by the Utah legislators that is consistent with these principles is Healthy Utah. In my opinion, the "Do Nothing' option of rejecting all federal funding (which thankfully Gov. Herbert and House Speaker Greg Hughes consider unacceptable) blatantly violates all of them. The alternative proposals fall short on at least some levels. Let me explain how by running down the principles discussed:

1. "EFFORTS FROM BOTH THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR":

Healthy Utah is a public program which benefits and utilizes the private sector by giving those in the coverage gap access to insurance from the private insurance market.

2. "BENEFIT ALL HIS CHILDREN"

Healthy Utah benefits the poor by giving them access to insurance coverage, and respects the taxpayer by bringing back to Utah the maximum possible amount of our taxpayer dollars. Alternative proposals fall short of both of these goals, bringing coverage to fewer people and rejecting huge amounts of Utah taxpayer money.

3.   " AS SELF-SUFFICIENT AS THEIR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW"

Healthy Utah included reasonable co-pays and premiums which encourage personal responsibility, but do not as people to metaphorically "run faster than he has strength" (The Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:27). Alternative proposal do not respect circumstances and ask exactly this. By reducing the coverage to only those at 100% of the coverage gap, these proposals force those at 101-138% to pay higher premiums and deductibles, with the only help coming from ACA subsidies that were never intended to be enough for people at this income level. 

4. "THE LACK OF ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE CAN IMPAIR A PERSON'S ABILITY TO PROVIDE FOR SELF AND FAMILY"

This one is obvious: all proposals other than Healthy Utah leave a large number of people without reasonable, affordable access to healthcare. Healthy Utah even helps people to become more self-sufficient through the much discussed Work Effort which helps those who are unemployed or underemployed find employment or gain employable skills.

Again, I wish to stress that the conclusions drawn here are entirely my own. I'm not suggesting the LDS Church endorsed Healthy Utah, or that Mormons are obligated to support it. merely that, fortunately, Healthy Utah fits all of the principles they did endorse. And unfortunately, the other proposals do not.

TELL LEGISLATORS YOU SUPPORT HEALTHY UTAH