Utah Ballot Initiatives 2018, 12/31/17
Utah Decides Healthcare - This would raise sales taxes by 0.15 percent to fund full Medicaid expansion, bringing a half a billion dollars in federal health care money into the state each year to cover about 100,000 uninsured Utahns.
Survey of Utahns and Medicaid Expansion
Expanding Medicaid has long been a controversial subject in Utah. But a new poll shows a majority of Utahns support greater access to low-income health insurance under an upcoming citizen ballot initiative.
According to the new poll, 59 percent of Utahns support full Medicaid expansion. It was conducted by Dan Jones and Associates for the website UtahPolicy.com. The poll was based on the Utah Decides Healthcare ballot initiative. Rylee Curtis is their campaign manager.
"I’m not surprised but I’m very excited about the poll numbers that came out today," Curtis says.
http://kuer.org/post/majority-utahns-support-medicaid-ballot-initiative-says-survey#stream/0
Maine leads the way 11/3/17
“We’re looking at Maine as a bellwether for what’s going to happen next year,” said RyLee Curtis, campaign manager for Utah Decides Healthcare, which is leading that state’s effort.
ObamaCare gave states the option of expanding Medicaid eligibility to more low-income adults starting in 2014, with the federal government picking up most of the cost.
Majority of Utahns support Medicaid expansion
"Now, a new poll commissioned by The Salt Lake Tribune and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics has found 62 percent of Utahns either strongly or somewhat support an initiative petition to put full Medicaid expansion on the state’s November 2018 ballot."
Washington Times reports Utah Medicaid Expansion 10/3/17
Karina Brown of Logan, Utah, was one of several people to speak at a news conference Monday after the group filed the paperwork. Her mother died of a stroke in 2013 when she didn’t have insurance was a few months away from qualifying for Medicare, The Salt Lake Tribune reports (https://bit.ly/2yk5VJY ).
“It was really gratifying because I know what that could mean for people,” Brown said “It’s being able to access primary care without fear of exorbitant costs and receive the care they need to be productive.”
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/2/utah-medicaid-expansion-ballot-initiative-filed-mo/
Medicaid Expansion Ballot Initiative Application
Utah Medicaid Expansion filed 10/2/17
Karina Brown of Logan, Utah, was one of several people to speak at a news conference Monday after the group filed the paperwork. Her mother died of a stroke in 2013 when she didn’t have insurance was a few months away from qualifying for Medicare, The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2yk5VJY ).
“It was really gratifying because I know what that could mean for people,” Brown said “It’s being able to access primary care without fear of exorbitant costs and receive the care they need to be productive.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/utah-medicaid-expansion-ballot-initiative-filed-monday/
Utah in National News 10/2/17
"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."
2018 Ballot Initiatives and Utah Lawmakers 10/5/17
Medicaid expansion • A Brigham Young University poll in 2014 showed that 76 percent of Utahns favored a significant expansion of Medicaid, covering most low-income families and individuals who otherwise could not get insurance. Gov. Gary Herbert’s Healthy Utah, covering 111,000 needy Utahns, had 43 percent approval while then-President Barack Obama’s more extensive Affordable Care Act plan had 33 percent approval, which means three-fourths of Utahns wanted a significant expansion.
Only 11 percent backed the Legislature’s plan, which would have covered 54,000. Since then, the Capitol gang became even more stingy, finally passing a plan that would covers far fewer.
So the group Utah Decides Healthcare filed papers with the lieutenant governor’s office this week to gather signatures for a ballot measure that would expand Medicaid to about 120,000 disadvantaged Utahns.