Full Medicaid expansion could go to voters 10/1/17

The Utah Health Policy Project is joined by AARP, Voices for Utah Children and other groups who have been active in this issue for a long time, Stevenson said. Their efforts drew notice from several national groups, among them Families USA and The Fairness Project who have agreed to support the ballot initiative drive both logistically and financially.

Initiative sponsors include Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights; Karina Andelin Brown, a health care advocate from Logan; Beth Armstrong, a health clinic director from Park City; Alan Ormsby of the AARP in Salt Lake City; and Bishop Scott Hayashi, of Salt Lake City’s Episcopal Diocese.

http://www.standard.net/Government/2017/10/01/Full-Medicaid-expansion-could-go-to-voters-to-decide-in-November-2018.html

Doug Wright Radio Show 10/3/17

KSL Newsradio's Doug Wright continues the conversation about the Las Vegas shooting, and takes your calls about what your response is to the Las Vegas shooting and what you think the country can do about it.  President Trump also landed in hurricane torn Puerto Rico today. Doug gives live coverage of his visit, and also a response from the president's words.  Doug also dives in to a medicare and medicaid conversation due to the Utah Decides Healthcare ballot proposal. Doug is joined by Matt Slonaker the Director of the Utah Health Policy Project and Karina Brown, whose mother died of a stroke while she was uninsured. 

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=1388&a=15526&showid=2016&n=The%20Doug%20Wright%20Show

Full Medicaid Expansion and Utah Voters 10/3/17

"Signatories on the application include Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Hieghts, and the Right Rev. Scott B. Hayashi, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. The others are Beth Armstrong, executive director of the nonprofit People's Health Clinic in Park City; Alan Ormsby, directory of AARP in Utah; and Karina Brown, a Logan mother whose own mom was uninsured when she recently died at 64 years old.

Bishop Hayashi said he is optimistic the initiative will both make it to the ballot and pass.

"(Utahns) care deeply about each other," he said. "I'm very, very hopeful. … I know people are very compassionate."

Bishop Hayashi and other supporters of the initiative say they're encouraged by polling showing most Utahns favor Medicaid expansion.

"We're speaking directly to the people of Utah … after four years talking about it at the Capitol," he said.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46024668&nid=148&title=full-medicaid-expansion-a-step-closer-to-being-decided-by-utah-voters

Advocates Submit Medicaid Expansion Ballot Initiative 10/2/17

"Sponsors of the Utah Decides Healthcare ballot initiative submitted their bill language to the Lieutenant Governor’s office on Monday. The initiative would put Medicaid expansion up to voters in 2018.

Initiative sponsors described it as a “clean Medicaid expansion.”

It’s designed to expand health coverage to people in the so-called “coverage gap”. That means individuals who don’t make enough money to buy insurance on their own but make too much to qualify for low-income healthcare. Here in Utah, that’s about 120,000 people.  

With Medicaid, states and the federal government each pay a share. With this proposal Utah would pay $91 million per year. In return the federal government would contribute $804 million.

The state’s portion would come from a .15 percent sales tax increase, not including food purchases."

http://kuer.org/post/advocates-submit-medicaid-expansion-ballot-initiative-capitol#stream/0

Good 4 Utah Medicaid Expansion article 10/2/17

"We've been at loggerheads with the traditional legislative process for the last four years," said Matt Slonaker, with Utah Health Policy Project.

That's why advocates for Medicaid expansion, like many others, are hoping to take their cause straight to the voter.

They want to close the coverage gap that tens of thousands of Utahn's are trapped in. Not only do they not have health insurance, they can't get it, because they make too much for Medicaid and not enough to get it on the ACA exchange.

"The most disturbing, and really the sad part here is that I've known two individuals that couldn't access insurance, they were in the coverage gap, and unfortunately they passed away. I don't think that in a state like Utah that should ever happen," said Slonaker.

Slonaker and other advocates say the Utah Decides Healthcare Act of 2018 will change that.

If successful, the initiative will protect state funding for the traditional CHIP and Medicaid programs into the future. It would also establish full Medicaid expansion.

That means all Utahns, who are at, or below 138% of the federal poverty level would be covered. That's an estimated 127,000 people by 2021.

http://www.good4utah.com/news/politics/medicaid-expansion-advocates-file-ballot-initiative/823029875

Deseret News article 10/2/17

"Most Utahns with dependant children and who make between 55 percent and 100 percent of the federal poverty level fall into a coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for tax credits toward an insurance plan on the federal exchange.

Those tax credits cover 72 percent of the cost of premiums for Utahns on the exchange on average, meaning paying for a plan without them dramatically balloons a person's monthly costs, according to the Utah Health Policy Project, one of the advocacy organizations supporting the initiative campaign.

The coverage gap is even larger for most Utahn adults without dependants. Only a few thousand people in that demographic — largely the most needy, such as those who are homeless — are the target of limited Medicaid eligibility expansion that state officials hope will be federally approved this fall."

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865690175/Full-Medicaid-expansion-a-step-closer-to-being-decided-by-Utah-voters.html

Salt Lake Tribune 10/2/17

"Karina Brown’s mother died of an acute stroke in 2013 — uninsured and just a few months short of qualifying for health benefits under Medicare.

A single mother with seven kids, she went without regular medical screenings and checkups for most of her life, Brown said Monday. She would talk with friends and family in the medical field when she needed it, but her mother feared that seeing a doctor would be too expensive.

Brown joined a handful of health care advocates on Monday as they submitted a proposed ballot initiative to fully expand Medicaid in Utah to the lieutenant governor’s office – a measure Brown believes could help others experiencing similar circumstances to her family."

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/10/02/backers-file-paperwork-to-put-utah-medicaid-expansion-on-2018-ballot/

90.9 KRCL Radioactive Show

"Rylee Curtis, campaign manager for the Utah Decides Healthcare push to secure adequate healthcare coverage for over 100,000 low-income Utahns through a 2018 ballot initiative. Karina Brown, ballot initiative sponsor, shares her family's story of falling in the coverage gap."

http://www.krcl.org/blog/radioactive-january-3-2018/