Volunteers seek vote to expand Medicaid in Idaho

Feb. 14--Garrett Strizich and others hit Idaho roads last summer in a bright green 1977 Dodge camper with "Medicaid for Idaho" painted on both sides. They spoke with residents throughout the state about the roughly 78,000 Idahoans who fall in the Medicaid coverage gap.

Now, Strizich, co-founder of Reclaim Idaho, which initiated the summer roadtrip, and others are about 40,000 signatures away from reaching their goal of putting their Medicaid expansion petition on the November ballot.

Strizich, a medical student through the University of Washington's Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho program in Moscow, said he and other volunteers throughout the state have been collecting signatures since early January and have collected about 15,000.

He said a little more than 56,000 signatures are needed by May 1 to get the petition on the November ballot. However, the 56,000 signatures need to be distributed so that 6 percent of the registered voters in 18 of the 35 legislative districts sign the petition.

Those in the Medicaid gap earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford insurance on the state health insurance exchange. Expanding Medicaid would provide health insurance to them.

"If you can actually give people access to health care, I think it can really change people's lives," Strizich said. "That's an impressive thing to do for one person, let alone 78,000 people."

He said expanding Medicaid will also save the state money while improving the economy.

Although 40,000 more signatures may sound daunting, he said they are ahead of schedule.

Strizich said he and others had estimated they would be at only 6,000 signatures at the end of January.

Strizich said they hope to collect thousands of signatures at school levy elections March 13 by standing outside the polling places and speaking to voters.

He said that in Maine, the only state to pass Medicaid expansion through a ballot initiative, volunteers collected most of their signatures at 2016 presidential election polling places.

He said he and others will stand outside about 20 businesses throughout Latah County on March 3 to collect signatures as well.

Voters can also visit medicaidforidaho.org and print, sign and mail the petition.

Strizich said he found unbelievable support from Idahoans for Medicaid expansion during the summer roadtrip, which sparked the ballot initiative campaign.

Adiya Jaffari, also a medical student through the UW WWAMI program in Moscow, said, "Every time we go out and collect signatures we inevitably run into people who not only want to sign, but they kind of see it as an opportunity to tell their story."

She said the cause is a good opportunity to remind herself of some of the reasons she is in medical school.

"As a physician, we will encounter people who fall in that gap on a daily basis and knowing that I spent at least some time trying to expand care to those people is really important to me," Jaffari said.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to [email protected].

___

(c)2018 the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho)

Visit the Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Moscow, Idaho) at www.dnews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.