Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Utah's Medicaid Expansion Plan To Face Critical Closed-Door Vote
House Republicans are expected to pull the plug Tuesday afternoon on the latest attempt to expand health coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Utahns, with one representative anticipating the supporters of the expansion plan could be counted on both hands. Republicans in the House are scheduled to meet in a closed-door caucus to determine whether there is enough support to warrant a special session later this month. ... Utah Access Plus was the product of months of negotiations between legislative leaders and Gov. Gary Herbert. It calls on health care providers — doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and others — to pay about $50 million to bring in $450 million of federal matching funds in order to subsidize health coverage for about 95,000 of Utah's poor. (Gehrke, 10/12)
Gov. Gary Herbert said he's optimistic his efforts to expand Medicaid in Utah won't end when House Republicans meet behind closed doors Tuesday to take a straw vote on the latest proposal. "I expect they're going to try to negotiate some kind of alternative. What they've got on the table right now may not be acceptable, but there's more than one — or two or three — ways to skin the cat," the governor told reporters Monday. (Romboy and Riley Roche, 10/12)
For more than three years, state elected officials have debated if and how they'll insure thousands of Utah's poor by expanding Medicaid, but top officials aren't sure if that effort will survive a closed-door vote Tuesday by conservatives in Utah's House of Representatives. If there isn't enough support, legislative leaders and Herbert's office won't predict if they'll still consider the issue in a special session or if they'll walk away from the issue entirely. (Price, 10/12)
The conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is stepping up its attacks on ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion as the decision-making enters a key phase in Utah. AFP, backed by conservative donors Charles and David Koch, is launching new mail pieces sent to the constituents of roughly a dozen key Utah state lawmakers. (Sullivan, 10/12)
