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No Medicaid Deal As Legislative Session Ends

consumerreports.org
With no deal reached, lawmakers could ask the Governor to convene a special legislative session to finalize Medicaid expansion for Utah.

Any chance for a deal between supporters of Gov. Gary Herbert’s Healthy Utah Medicaid expansion and rival plan Utah Cares have died with the conclusion of this year’s legislative session. It was announced that no agreement had been reached during a Thursday press conference with the Governor and legislative leaders. However, there is hope that the issue could be resolved through a special session of the legislature.

Speaking on Wednesday, Herbert said that Healthy Utah was the best option for dealing with the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion mandate.

“We’ve got cards that some of us don’t like that have been dealt to us by the Affordable Care Act. I was not a supporter of that, myself, but I’ve got to play the cards I’ve been dealt in the beast way I can to represent the taxpayer,” he said. “Bringing some of that money back and putting it into the private sector and giving [Utahns] better coverage and better outcomes is the conservative, compassionate, principled thing to do.”

It has not been announced whether or not the Governor will convene a special legislative session to resolve the issue.