Posted: Mar 21, 2008  08:20

Representative Bill Sali recently wrote that he believes the best way to reduce costs and make health care for children more affordable is to trust competition and existing private-insurance plans.

He's wrong.

At age nine months, my son Dixon was diagnosed with a life-threatening congenital heart defect. He received excellent care locally followed by 13 hours of surgery in Chicago. After 6 months, he was discharged - and we had a $600,000 medical bill.

It didn't matter. Dixon was alive.

Thankfully, my company's excellent health insurance covered almost all of Dixon's bills. But what if we had been among the 40% of Idahoans who don't have insurance?

Many will never be able to afford it on their own.

Without insurance, we never could have gone to Chicago for my son's procedure. Without insurance, the best surgeons would never have operated. And without insurance, he wouldn't have survived to become the strong teenager he is today.

Bill Sali claims that all Idahoans should buy their own insurance. That is an insult to any family that's had to sit scared in a hospital waiting room wondering if their child will receive the best care because they can't pay and are uninsured.

More competition would not have made the procedures that saved my sons life affordable. Good health insurance gave my son a chance at life. Every Idaho child deserves the same.