"Advocates for a full Medicaid expansion in Utah are done waiting for the Utah Legislature and want to take the issue straight to voters.
A coalition of healthcare advocates, including nonprofit groups and Utah Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, the only physician in the state Senate, filed a ballot initiative with the lieutenant governor's office on Monday, arguing that a full expansion of Medicaid as allowed under the Affordable Care Act would help 120,000 low-income Utahns to get health care coverage.
"Whether we're talking about the tens of thousands of poor and uninsured people or the homeless population, if we want to make a significant dent in the uninsured, cure the homeless problem and improve healthcare in general in the state of Utah, then we need to have some type of Medicaid solution," said Shiozawa, who works as an emergency physician at St. Mark's Hospital in Millcreek."