Time for Reform: Why Repealing Medicaid Expansion Could Revive Idaho’s Health and Economy

Idaho’s legislature is partly through the process of repealing Medicaid expansion in our state. The argument against the repeal is that it would injure those on the receiving end of the program and that it is an economic boon to our state.

I am sure it is true that the Federal dollars spent do boost economic activity in Idaho, and I am willing to concede that point. In fact, that is part of the problem. Even as government spending boosts an economy, it is at the same time shaping it, diverting capital and resources in response to that spending, and creating an economic dependency on that spending. Additionally, government spending tends to be inherently inefficient as well, and frequently rife with fraud. So just because you can measure how many dollars are coming in the door and assume additional economic activity related to that spending, it does not guarantee that good things are happening, and you can be certain that a dependency on that spending is being created.

In fact, I think it has become painfully obvious that our entire medical/healthcare system is in crisis. Trends firmly in place for decades are coming to a head. Costs have been inflating, and health outcomes have been cratering. This has driven the MAHA movement nationwide. The MAHA movement is a literal life-and-death issue for the long-term survival of America as a great nation, and for Idaho as a great state. You can argue that federal healthcare spending boosts Idaho's economy in black and white, but you cannot argue that it makes Idaho and its people any healthier, either physically or financially, long term.

It is time for reform in medicine. The corruption in our medical system, as evidenced in part by its complete lack of transparency when it comes to pricing, is unbelievable. What is objectively true is that our government (the taxpayer) is constantly getting ripped off by a complex and corrupt medical-industrial complex. It is time for free market reforms in medicine before it is too late. And the repeal of Medicaid expansion is a great start.

The American public is broken financially by the exorbitant costs, and its health has been destroyed by the ill-conceived methodologies. Our doctors are too often ignorant of what it takes to make a patient healthy, or our patients would be healthier and not sicker than any other generation. Let’s put the power back in the hands of the customers/patients, make our doctors accountable and interested in outcomes and not just reimbursements, and return to a much freer and less managed market driven by the people who ultimately always pay the bills in more ways than one.