Today yet another economic study was released which showed that Healthy Utah's approach to closing the coverage gap and solving Utah's Medicaid expansion problem was a no-brainer. What else can you call a plan which returns $500 million from the federal government every year, grows our state's economy by $874 million, and gives us 6 times the dollar value of the rival plan? Sadly, a no-brainer seems to be beyond the grasp of Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes and House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, who quickly issued a press release making it clear that they consider Health Utah off the table.
While Hughes and Dunnigan are fond of stating that this is no longer a debate between Healthy Utah and Utah Cares, this argument is a silly and condescending insult to the intelligence of Utah voters: it's abundantly clear that these plans represent the two different approaches to closing the gap, and one works and one doesn't. Whatever they're considering has to more closely resemble one or the other of these two plans. The new data underscores the point that any plan which doesn't do what Healthy Utah does isn't a real solution. So the so-called "Gang of Six" continues to meet behind closed doors, with Hughes and Dunnigan claiming to work for a solution to the problem. But what sense does it make to claim you are working to solve a problem, and at the same time dismiss what expert economic evidence objectively shows us is the solution?
Since the end of the 2015 general legislative session, we've been told a plan couldn't proceed until the Supreme Court ruled in the King v. Burwell case. Well, they ruled. Now Dunnigan is shifting the focus to the 2016 election, stating: "If we get a Republican president I think they would give us more flexibility." Does this mean he expects 53,000 people to keep waiting? And what happens if, as every poll tells us is the likely outcome, a Democrat is elected President? What then will become the excuse to wait? Hughes and Dunnigan keep talking about "flexibility", but both economic science and public opinion keep telling us that this flexibility is not needed or wanted. Healthy Utah solves the problem, and every other approach which has been discussed (short of a straight up expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act ) is at best the equivalent of a Band Aid over a gaping wound from a sawed-off shotgun.
To claim comparing Healthy Utah and Utah Cares is not relevant brings the debate down to a new level of absurdity, which frankly shouldn't be possible at this point.
Speaker Hughes and Rep. Dunnigan's actions and attitudes simpy don't make sense if they are concerned about the needs or wants of the people of Utah. Real leadership requires doing your job, not coming up with new reasons to delay doing it. And in the meantime, 53,000 of Utah's working poor are left with nothing to but wait and pray that they'll still be able to be helped when (and if) help finally comes.
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