This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Having just read through Sen. Allen Christensen's diatribe against federal spending and accepting federal money for Medicaid expansion ("Taking federal Medicaid money is not 'the Utah way,'" July 6), I find it strange that he claims the "Utah way" is working with free or sliding-scale fee-based health care clinics when he clearly admits that tens of thousands of people are left without medical care.

He says that by expanding Medicaid, those who are currently receiving government-assisted health care could potentially be worse off if we add tens of thousands more onto an already overburdened health care system. If we are currently leaving out tens of thousands of people, the "Utah way" seems to be what the conservatives have clamored about all along in regard to government-assisted health care. We are picking those who receive care and those who don't. In fact, the "Utah way" is a de facto death panel and is clearly not a working solution.

David Taylor

Salt Lake City