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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Idaho Poverty: A slow death sentence

It’s hard to imagine the courage it takes to tell a personal story like this. Chelle deserves a great deal of credit. She also deserves affordable access to health insurance. So do 78,000 Idahoans who, like Chelle, fall in the coverage gap, a gap created by conservatives in the Idaho Legislature. (Better Idaho / Courtesy Photo)
It’s hard to imagine the courage it takes to tell a personal story like this. Chelle deserves a great deal of credit. She also deserves affordable access to health insurance. So do 78,000 Idahoans who, like Chelle, fall in the coverage gap, a gap created by conservatives in the Idaho Legislature. (Better Idaho / Courtesy Photo)

In a poignant, first-person story, Idahoan Chelle Gluch explains how living in poverty in the Gem State is a slow death sentence. She writes: "Over the years, I’ve lost about ten teeth, a finger, and a few toes to poverty. I try to rationalize—it’s not that bad, it is just one tiny body part. But – it is that bad." Chelle can't get medical care because she doesn't have insurance, a problem that Idaho GOP legislators can help relieve if they ditched their ideological opposition to Medicaid expansion for compassion:

I woke this morning with half my face swollen and throbbing–another bad tooth. I sat in the bathroom with an icepack pressed to my face and bawled. Not because of the pain but because of sheer frustration. I knew the tooth was going. I’d even managed to set aside $150 for the dentist over the last six months but it was far from the $650 the dentist needs for the root canal and crown. Once again, I’d lose a body part to poverty. More here.

Question: Have you spoken to your GOTP legislator about his/her opposition to Medicaid expansion?



D.F. Oliveria

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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