GOP House members not unanimous with blocking Healthy Utah


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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah House Republican leaders who have blocked the governor's Healthy Utah alternative to Medicaid expansion say they have a plan to provide health care for needy people.

House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, said he's shared the proposal with Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the Utah Department of Health, his GOP colleagues and some senators.

"It's a good plan. It's sustainable. It's doable. It's doable quickly," Dunnigan told reporters Friday. "We've proffered it up, and we're letting the other folks consider it."

Dunnigan said the plan provides care for about 60,000 Utahns in the so-called coverage gap — those who don’t qualify for traditional Medicaid but who also don’t earn enough to qualify for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. It would cost the state $65 million over the next two years, he said.

Unlike Healthy Utah, it would not expire after two years, and with or without an enhanced dollar match from the federal government, "we've got a program that we're comfortable we can keep on indefinitely," said Dunnigan, co-chairman of the state's Health Reform Task Force.

Gov. Gary Herbert's office said it has received a "conceptual" outline of Dunnigan's proposal.

The governor's spokesman Marty Carpenter said the "conservative" Healthy Utah bill uses $25 million over two years to cover 126,000 people using private insurance.

"From what we can see so far, the House proposal appears to cost $75 million over the same period and leaves 61,000 people in the gap without adequate coverage," he said. "Clearly that would be of concern to the governor.

Carpenter said Herbert believes the House should give Healthy Utah fair and open consideration.

"Likewise, Gov. Herbert will give Rep. Dunnigan’s proposal due consideration," he said.

Meantime, supporters of Healthy Utah to hold a rally next Thursday to urge the House to hear SB164, bill that would enact the plan.


I am supporting Healthy Utah and would very much like to have this issue debated and voted on, so that position is very frustrating and disappointing to me.

–Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake


House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, reiterated Friday that Herbert's plan approved by the Senate has no chance in the House.

"There's absolutely lack of support to move forward," Hughes said. "We can get together and get to something that's good."

The speaker and governor had pointed words this week about the impasse over Healthy Utah. Herbert said earlier he would continue fighting for the proposal and work with the House to "see if we can't have reason and common sense prevail."

Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, said the Senate has not seen a "concrete" proposal from the House.

Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, who met with Hughes on Friday, said he couldn't say whether he's willing to negotiate down from Healthy Utah. Shiozawa sponsored SB164.

"I would have to see what their final offer is on that," he said." Healthy Utah is so much better than the other plans out there."

Dunnigan's plan would cover people earning up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. The Obama administration has not allowed the 90 percent match for programs that cover 100 percent or less of poverty. But Dunnigan said that could change with a new president in 2017 and Utah could apply for the enhanced match.

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Because Healthy Utah complies with the requirement that coverage be available to anyone earning 138 percent or less of the federal poverty rate, the federal government would initially pick up all of the cost. It would drop to a 90 percent match in 2021.

Hughes said there are diverse opinions among the 63 GOP House members and insisted that leadership has not lobbied for a particular position.

"We haven’t been bullying this issue," he said.

Rather, Hughes said, Dunnigan has been the target of negative mailers, which played a part in the speaker putting the brakes on the governor's plan. The ads, paid for by the Alliance for a Better Utah, sent to homes in Dunnigan's district attack his stance on Healthy Utah and say he wants to hurt families.

Hughes said he feared the same tactics would be used to "manipulate" GOP House members' votes on the issue.

"I don't want to see my members go through that for something that isn't viable," he said.

Hughes took the unusual step of countering the ads with his own mailer to "correct the record" paid for by his leadership PAC.

Even with the 12 House Democrats, Hughes said, there aren't enough votes to pass Healthy Utah.

Hughes said there's strong sentiment for a wait-and-see approach because state costs for Medicaid keep changing. He said lawmakers just learned they'll need another $22 million this year, and that means cuts in other areas to find it.

The House, Hughes added, wants to find ways to provide health care to the state's most needy in a way that's financially sustainable.

"We need to get to a discussion about what we can actually do," he said.

Not all House Republicans agree with their leadership's decision to hold back the governor's plan.


The frustrating thing about the dead on arrival comments is (that) there are very few bills that we are dealing with that are of greater importance than Healthy Utah.

–House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City


"I am supporting Healthy Utah and would very much like to have this issue debated and voted on, so that position is very frustrating and disappointing to me," Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, posted on her website.

The House GOP caucus spent two hours in a closed meeting Thursday talking about Medicaid. Edwards said they discussed other options and some lawmakers are working diligently on a compromise bill.

"We don’t have language on that compromise, but please know it is in the works," she told her constituents. "I am cautiously optimistic we’re on the right track."

House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said at least 10 Republicans have told him privately that they support the governor's proposal.

"The frustrating thing about the dead-on-arrival comments is there are very few bills that we are dealing with that are of greater importance than Healthy Utah," he said.

Democrats favor full Medicaid expansion, but King said they're behind the governor's plan because it's the only politically viable solution.

While the debate over Healthy Utah appears over, discussions over Medicaid are ongoing.

"The last two weeks is when everything comes together," House Assistant Whip Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, told the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards Friday.

Wilson described Herbert and Hughes as good men with strong opinions. And he said he has confidence in the legislative process.

"I understand what is going on," he said. "I think we all do."

Wilson said the speaker "has been saying from the first day of the session that doing nothing is not an option" on Medicaid expansion. "And I feel the same way. The rest of House leadership feels the same way, and we will continue to work with the governor's office, if they want, to find some solutions that we can live with."

Wilson made it clear that House leaders are willing to talk about Medicaid expansion, not the governor's Healthy Utah plan.

"There's a lot of space between nothing and Healthy Utah," he said. "So that's the space we're talking about now."

Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche, Keith McCord

[listen to ‘House Speaker defends move to silence healthcare expansion’ on audioBoom](https://audioboom.com/boos/2938139-house-speaker-defends-move-to-silence-healthcare-expansion)

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