Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 3.25.15

28 | MARCH 25, 2015
NOTES FROM THE
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Local Topics, Opposing Views
By Tim Baldwin
“You can’t buy health.” Right? Ironically, without money, a person’s health will suffer. Much of the debate concerning the Affordable Healthcare Act and Medicaid expansion surrounds this reality. Here is the problem: health care costs can destroy people financially who cannot afford health insurance. A fix is necessary then.
The legislature is debating SB 405 now. It seeks to expand Medicaid coverage for those who cannot afford health insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid—a lot of Montanans. SB 405 is a 16 page bill that gives a lot of rule-making power to the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Labor and Industry. It has opt- out provisions for those not wanting to participate, as well as an oversight committee to report on its findings on various subjects.
Not all services arranged by government are inherently ineffective. For example, government builds roads, provides public education, and defends our nation. We have come to accept and expect this. So, we pay taxes to these ends. Those services are borne and enjoyed by everyone. Today, people are viewing health care more this way. But that debate, of course, continues.
Not all answers involving government regulation are ideal, but some are necessary. The institution of government is itself a choice of necessity. Thankfully, we, the people, have the inherent power to abolish any laws that prove unworthy.
By Joe Carbonari
This past week in Helena, our senate’s Health Committee held a hearing on Ed Buttrey’s bill to strike a compromise on Medicaid expansion. They haven’t voted on it yet. I hope that there are some good backroom discussions working themselves out. “What are the problems?” “What do you want?” What do you really want... need?”
Buttrey seems to think some personal responsibility on the part of beneficiaries is important. I agree. His bill appears to give people a reasonable opportunity to better their lot, a requirement to give it a try, and an enforced personal by-in , of at least a few dollars.
Coverage would essentially be full for the gap left when Medicaid expansion became optional and we said no to the money. Intentions were good all-around, but the thinking was incomplete. The money is ours, by right, to use for the health of our people. There is significant need. There are significant jobs at stake...in fields available to those who most need them....both families, and individuals.
In our families we error on the side of taking care of everyone, even those that aren’t fully cooperating at a given moment...at least we do on serious things...like their health. Who truly deserves how much of our help, for what, and with what strings attached? I like Ed Buttrey’s approach to health care.
S.B. 405...a good way to treat our Montana family.
Medicaid Expansion
GUESTCOLUMN | KenMiller
HINTERLANDS Tristan Scott Chasing Gold
M at Nate Chute
Y REASONS FOR ENTERING THE 16TH annual Nate Chute Classic snowboarding contest were modest and self-effacing, at least ostensibly.
The event, which raises money for suicide awareness and prevention services in the Flathead Valley, is a truly great cause. Participants receive a free T-shirt, a cool swag bag and have the opportunity to meet a lot of new friends.
It’s also a chance to ride a real burner of a course, bristling with breakneck curves, stomach-dropping rollers and a gorge so tight it’s reminiscent of the speeder-bike scene in “Return of the Jedi.”
But in this race between the Rebels and the Empire, I was decidedly an Ewok.
I didn’t harbor any delusions about placing competitively among the slate of top riders vying for a fat cash purse. Instead, I took comfort in my aw-shucks rationale that the worst outcome was a last-place finish. Or a disqualifying run. Or a season-ending injury.
At least I’d still have a T-shirt.
In reality, registering for the Nate Chute banked slalom and boardercross race was a big deal for me, the culmination of a winter I’d dedicated to improving at a sport in which I’ve always been a bit of a straggler.
I’m competitive at everything I try. Whether I’m toeing the line at the local turkey trot or gunning for points at Sunday night Scrabble league, I chase the glory all the way to the finish. But as much I love snowboarding, it’s never invoked the same competitive urges as other activities. And perhaps for that reason, I’m perennially slower than most of my friends, content to ride along at my own pace, oblivious to my awkward, flailing form.
This winter season was different. On opening day at Whitefish Mountain Resort, I vowed to push myself for the next four months, to strive for improvement, to really commit to the sport without sacrificing any of the fun.
After all, I wasn’t exactly a neophyte. Having grown up skiing icy, egg-shell-smooth groomers in Minnesota, I transitioned to snowboarding when I was 12, my first board a Russell Winfield Ride upon which I broke my wrist at a competition in the terrain park at Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area.
I can still recall lying at the base of the jump, writhing in pain as the ski patrollers tethered me to their litter and towed me to the patrol clinic. The fall had bruised my pre- pubescent ego, and to add insult to injury, the patroller mistook me for a girl after glancing at my long chestnut locks, my earring and my baby face.
My broken bone healed more quickly than my ego, and I’ve never explored the sport in any competitive sense since. Until last weekend.
In the hours leading up to the race, my nerves were a jittery mess as I watched racers wax their boards in the parking lot, sharpening their edges to a razor’s edge while I applied a perfunctory coat of fluorinated race wax, knowing it wouldn’t help me.
My first run was a disaster. I fell early on while rounding a gate and had to scoot around it to avoid disqualification. When I finished, I anticipated humiliation. Instead, other riders offered congratulations. The nervousness disappeared and, even though I was more than a minute behind the top times, I’d just raced down the same course as the other riders, negotiating the same features and obstacles.
My second run, still slower than most other competitors, was 17 seconds faster than my initial time. I didn’t fall and I didn’t miss a gate. I was having fun.
For the rest of the afternoon, my friends and I rode our snowboards all around Big Mountain, pushing one another, riding together, smiling in the sunshine.
It was a good day to be a competitor, to be sure, but it was an even better season to be a snowboarder.
I’ll see you next year, Nate Chute-ers.
CSKT Water Compact Similar to Electrical Deregulation
Volumes have been written about how the 2015 Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) water compact is unconstitutional, costly, and sets in motion risky laws based on unprecedented new policies. These policies will be very destructive to Montanan’s for generations to come. Currently the only presented reason to support the compact is to alleviate the threat of the CSKT filing suit on 10,000 water claims all across western Montana. These claims are in my opinion very weak if not totally non-existing.
This policy has the potential to be the most damaging to Montana since statehood, including the electrical deregulation debacle. In fact, the parallels of deregulation and the 2015 CSKT water compact are astonishing. Both were pushed by the federal government with millions of outside dollars spent on high-priced lobbyists to convince policy makers that these are good ideas and that doing nothing will be very painful to Montanans.
Those major players involved in deregulation are now right back in the center of this compact. Many are making big money to ensure its passage regardless of the impact.
With deregulation, Enron Power was slated to make billions of dollars. In the same fashion Bonneville Power Administration is in the middle of this compact and could make out well when the federal government controls the water used to run hydroelectric dams. Because of the large amount of money involved with driving deregulation we now understand there was a deep level of corruption. We must all hope that this level of corruption is not repeating itself.
Another sad parallel between deregulation and the CKST compact is what is unknown. About all we do know about the CSKT compact is that it assigns most of the water in western Montana to the control of the federal government. From there it’s another pass it to figure out what it says piece of legislation.
Without a determination of the amount of water in this compact it is virtually impossible to understand its adverse impacts, or its implications on future growth and development. Having submitted the compact to the legislature in its current form, the governor, attorney general and compact commission are literally asking legislators to say yes to a blank check that will award the federal government / CSKT control of the abundant waters of western Montana.
It is also likely that the precedent-setting nature of the compact will reverberate around the country, paving the way for further overreach.
It took more than a decade to negotiate this compact, and the product of that negotiation has far more flaws than it does benefits.
Ultimately, if passed, the CSKT compact will still set in motion litigation for generations to come and eventually we will likely lose all our water rights to the federal government.
Many political careers came to an end as a result of electrical deregulation. I hope our elected officials will pull back the veil of deceit involved with this compact and stop this major policy change, now and for the future.
Ken Miller is a former state senator from Laurel and an irrigation water user in Carbon County.