As Healthy Utah now advances toward a committee hearing, it does so along with the latest incarnation of "Utah Cares", an alternative plan from Utah legislators. The name of that plan is inadvertently telling: its purpose is to send a message that these legislators aren't a bunch of heartless bureaucrats who don't care about people who are suffering. Sadly, the bill seems far more concerned with sending that message than actually helping people.
"Utah Cares", sponsored by House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, relies on a mix of traditional Medicaid and heavy reliance on Utah's Primary Care Network (PCN). Dunnigan himself has, on multiple occasions, referred to PCN as "better than nothing". Is that really what we plan to offer as a solution? PCN covers primary care only, which means no specialty care, no urgent care, no mental health coverage, and only limited prescription drug coverage. In essence, "Utah Cares" has morphed from a Senate plan which only covered people after they got sick enough to a plan which only helps people until they get sick.
Dunnigan defends this (as Allen Christensen defended his SB 153) by saying it's a big step, that it expands some form of coverage to a lot of people who didn't have it. That's a very skewed way of viewing the situation. It's not about how their plan compares to the status quo, it's about how it compares to the very effective alternative we have in place, and comparing Healthy Utah to "Utah Cares" is like comparing the Superman to Justin Bieber. Healthy Utah gives actual help to those in need, and brings a lot of tax money back to Utah and into our economy in the process. "Utah Cares" spends a lot of new money so we can pat ourselves on the back and say we tried.
No comments:
Post a Comment