361 Deaths? If We Want to Know if it is True, We Must Investigate

   I'd call for an investigation, if I could.
  Protesters gathered on the lawn at the Utah State Capitol in October, posting 361 crosses, each representing a life supposedly lost for lack of health insurance in the previous two plus years.
  Three-hundred-sixty-one. While the Utah Legislature failed to act, they died. This calls for an investigation. It cries for one. The claim of so many deaths comes from a study by Harvard and City University of New York.
   Now, when a claim like that is made, we should wonder if it is true. If 361 people died, we should be concerned. We should want to know if it is true.
   We should investigate.
   Though it has been eight months since the claim was made, it still rings in my mind. Now, I realize it would take a pretty introspective Legislature to agree to investigate. After all, the underlying reason for the deaths is that the Legislature had failed to act.
   What type of Legislature investigates itself?
   Still, it should. It should, with the attitude of, Hey, are we making a mistake here? Are people dying? Must we act, to save lives?
   Well, news broke today that the law the Legislature finally did pass is only going to get 10,000 added to Medicaid, not 16,000 as originally thought. How many are still being left out? How many will still be dying if we do not act to include them? These are things the Legislature should be investigating, if it is to weigh how far it should go with Medicaid expansion.
  If I could, I'd call for an investigation. The gravity of concern should be so high as to demand no less. If we are to know how far Medicaid expansion should go, we must know whether lives are, as claimed, being lost.