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Republican leaders have agreed to a broad, conceptual framework for expanding Medicaid to insure tens of thousands of low-income Utahns with a plan that would call on medical providers to pay for the new health coverage. The so-called Gang of Six — Gov. Gary Herbert, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, House Speaker Greg Hughes, House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan and Sen. Brian Shiozawa — huddled this week constructing the skeleton of a new Medicaid plan to replace the governor's Healthy Utah and the House's Utah Cares proposals. On Friday, they announced their agreement, saying it was sustainable and would protect other key areas of the budget. (Gehrke, 7/17)

Just days after House Republicans heard a woman who had lobbied them for Medicaid expansion died after not getting the care she needed, state leaders have announced a "conceptual framework" on a new program. ... They came to at least a conceptual agreement on two key issues: covering all of the Utahns eligible for Medicaid expansion and taxing hospitals and others in the medical community to pay for the state's share of the federal program's cost. That would mean a new plan for spending hundreds of millions of dollars available to the state would provide health care to about 100,000 Utahns earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. (Riley Roche, 7/17)

The state estimates that more than 4,000 new jobs will be created throughout Alaska to serve the new enrollees. Those jobs largely will focus on the healthcare industry, state officials said, but will include construction, hospitality and other fields. The state estimates that of the people who will become Medicaid eligible when expansion goes into effect by Sept. 1 about 5,000 live in the Interior. (Buxton, 7/18)