After Utah Republicans voted down this recent plan, House Speaker Greg Hughes suggested that the GOP caucus may never be comfortable with the federal requirements associated with a Medicaid expansion.
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After months of negotiations earlier this year, the Health Reform Task Force unveiled a scaled down of the Healthy Utah plan for Medicaid expansion called Utah Access Plus.
Thirty states have so far expanded Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, under ObamaCare.
“What we do here is a long-term solution for the state”, Niederhauser explained.
Kylie Toponce is just one of the tens of thousands of Utahns who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap.
Brian Shiozawa is a Republican member of the Utah State Senate representing District 8.
Utah House Republicans rejected Gov. Gary Herbert’s Healthy Utah plan in the last legislative session. “Keep the faith”, he told Utahns awaiting expansion. “There’s the political will, there’s the understanding people continue to suffer while they wait”, she said.
If passed, Utah Access Plus would receive about about $450 million from the federal government and require healthcare providers including doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies to cover the majority of Utah’s share though the payment of higher taxes and fees.
Otherwise, it was similar to the governor’s failed Healthy Utah plan, proposing to use the hundreds of millions of federal dollars available under the Affordable Care Act to assist with the purchase of private insurance policies. But Cox said he wants to see lawmakers pass a plan that helps the state’s neediest while finding a fair way to pay for it.
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“Everyone loves expanding Medicaid until they have to pay for it”, Hughes told The Salt Lake Tribune, while vowing that the expansion effort would continue.
