Kelly Buckland, the former director of Idaho's State Independent Living Council and now executive director of the National Council for Independent Living in Washington, D.C., is back in Boise today to lead a roundtable on the economic and other impacts of Medicaid in Idaho, including impacts of recent cuts. "It's great to be back amongst friends and colleagues and I'm really happy to see everybody," Buckland said. He's the facilitator for a panel that includes Mike Ferguson, director of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy and former state chief economist; Sgt. David Cavanaugh of the Boise Police Dept.; Katherine Hansen of Community Partnerships of Idaho; Jim Baugh of Disability Rights Idaho; JB Steel & Construction owner Joe Alcala, a member of the Main Street Alliance; and four people whose stories are shared in a "Medicaid Matters Storybook."

"When you make cuts to Medicaid, you're not just cutting this bureaucratic program, it affects real people and it affects their lives in very meaningful and substantial ways," Buckland said. "I think it's very important to put faces on the people who are getting those cuts."

Among those: Retta Green of Caldwell, who told the group this morning, "I am fighting cancer, and it seems like I am getting better. ... There is no way that I could pay for this if it wasn't for the Medicaid."

Baugh said for disabled Idahoans, Medicaid covers basic services that allow them to live and function in society. "Those kinds of services have no counterpart in regular medical insurance, but they are the ticket to freedom ... that we prize in this country," he said.