By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
The scaled-back Medicaid expansion plan from lawmakers to supplant Prop. 3 depends wholly on the state securing waivers from the Trump administration. If they can't get those waivers, then all Medicaid eligibility granted from the expansion efforts would be taken away.
Tucked away inside the most recent public version of SB96 is a provision stating if the state cannot get the requested waivers from the Trump administration, then the Utah Department of Health is required to "roll back all changes in Medicaid eligibility effectuated by a Medicaid expansion no later than the next July 1 after the day on which the department is no longer able to implement" expanding Medicaid coverage to Utahns who earn below 95% of the federal poverty level.
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By Bryan Schott, Managing Editor
Lawmakers are scrambling to find between $30 and $40 million extra to pay for the first year of the Medicaid expansion proposal that will supplant the voter-approved Prop. 3.
Multiple legislative sources tell UtahPolicy.com that SB96, which legislators are rushing to pass and get to Gov. Gary Herbert's desk by the end of next week, will need the extra money to make sure they can cover everyone who would be eligible for the health care expansion. Those extra funds are in addition to the sales tax increase included in Prop. 3. Prop. 3, if implemented, would cost no extra money in the first year.
