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The latest attempt to help low-income Utahns get health insurance was dead on arrival Tuesday, as House Republicans dealt the proposal a crushing blow, sending state leaders back to the drawing board and leaving tens of thousands of people without hope for health care for the foreseeable future. Utah Access Plus, the latest plan aimed at expanding health-insurance coverage to an estimated 125,000 Utahns, received seven votes from the 63 GOP House Republicans in the three-hour closed-door meeting, House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said Tuesday night. Hughes said it was concerns about the long-term sustainability of the Medicaid funding for the program, the potential for exploding costs and vocal opposition from medical providers who were called on to pay for part of the program that ultimately doomed Utah Access Plus in the House. (Gehrke, 10/13)

The latest version of Medicaid expansion, crafted by Gov. Gary Herbert and GOP legislative leaders, failed Tuesday to muster more than a handful of supporters among House Republicans and members of the Senate. ... That straw vote, along with a poll of both Republican and Democratic senators, leaves little hope of action on a plan to provide health care to some 95,000 low-income Utahns before the 2016 Legislature. The governor's spokeswoman, Aimee Edwards, said in a statement that Herbert "stands by" his plan for Medicaid expansion, known as Healthy Utah, that was defeated in the House last session. (Riley Roche, 10/13)

Florida still has nearly 2.8 million residents who lack health insurance, according to a new report, and 80 percent of them are uninsured for reasons that have nothing to do with Medicaid politics. Many qualify for subsidized plans under the Affordable Care Act but haven’t signed up, says the report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Others have enough income to buy it on their own or through their employer, but don’t. (Gentry, 10/13)