ONE VICTORY DOWN, TWO MORE TO GO

by Paul Gibbs

4-1. That was the final number of the vote to take SB 164, Healthy Utah, past the senate Health and Human Services Committee and on to the senate as a whole.  It came at the end of a long and tense meeting where advocates on both sides of the issue, including me, made their cases. Thankfully, they who were with us were more than they who were against us (literally, though if you wish to infer that I mean that in any other way you're free to do so), and the only no vote came from committee chair Evan J. Vickers (Sen. Allen M. Christensen, also on the committee and one of the staunchest foes of Healthy Utah, had to leave the meeting early).  The other members of the committee saw past the paranoid Obamacare arguments of the Anti-Healthy Utah speakers, and voted the only way that made sense. While I think those of us who testified (perhaps even me) deserve some credit, the lion's share goes to Republican Sen. Brian Shiozawa, the sponsor of the bill, and man I'm proud to say appears in Entitled to Life. Senator Shiozawa was a joy to watch both at the HHS committee meeting and the earlier house Social Services Appropriation committee hearing. His knowledge and poise allowed him to run circles around his opponents, and he perfectly conveyed the truth of our message: Healthy Utah is good for everybody and it would be absurd and foolish to reject it.

But as gratifying as yesterday's victory was, less than 24 hours later the time for patting ourselves on the back is already over. There are bigger hurdles ahead: the senate, where plenty of strong opposition (including from Sen. Christensen) still exists, and then the house, which is going to make the senate look easy. For the moment we've stolen the momentum away from Christensen's "Frail Utah" plan, but we can't afford to squander that. More than ever we need to be relentless in pressuring GOP legislators to support Healthy Utah. Please note that I am not trying to take partisan sides, it's just that we really have no opposition from Democrats on the hill. But aside from Shiozawa Republican legislators Edward Redd and Ray Ward also distinguished themselves yesterday. If Healthy Utah passes, it will not be a Democratic victory, it will be a Utah victory.

Two legislators of particular importance are Senate President Wayne Neiderhauser and, as always, Rep. Jim Dunnigan. They can be contacted at:

Sen. Niederhauser:
Home: 801-942-3398
Work:  801-538-1035
Cell:    801-742-1606
Fax:    1-866-283-7751
wniederhauser@le.utah.gov

Rep. Dunnigan:
801- 840-1800
jdunnigan@le.utah.gov

The first battle of this session is won. But we'll have to double our efforts to win the two battles ahead.