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Frustration Growing Over Delay Of Healthy Utah

travelblog.org
Many are not sure whether the Gang of Six will have a compromise in time for the August special legislative session.

Wednesday, various organizations held a press conference in Salt Lake City to urge elected officials to finalize a plan to pass Republican Gov. Gary Herbert’s Healthy Utah. Some supporters of Healthy Utah are growing frustrated with the apparent lack of progress in negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders, collectively known as the “Gang of Six.”

Crystal Young-Otterstrom, chair of the Utah Democratic Party’s Latter-day Saint caucus, said that needless delays in the process have become absurd.

“It’s frustration with determination. It feels like every group out there, conservative or progressive, is in favor of Healthy Utah,” she said. “Many, many people from both sides of the aisle have been working on this issue and trying to get the right thing done. So, it’s a little bit preposterous that our legislature has not yet put together a real plan.”

Herbert’s Healthy Utah would be a partial expansion of Medicaid. One of the main goals of the plan is to close the coverage gap for those who don’t currently qualify for Medicaid, yet can’t afford health insurance. Young-Otterstrom said that Utahns should continue to show their support for expanded health care coverage.

“This is an issue that Utahns have spoken up about, Utahns do favor it,” she said. “Legislators continuing not to act or saying they’re not going to vote for it or making it political –that’s not what the majority of Utahns want. So, Utahns need to take that opinion to the ballot box.”

An attempt at expanding Medicaid failed during the 2015 general legislative session.