Herbert, legislative leaders to DC to talk Medicaid

Herbert, legislative leaders to DC to talk Medicaid

(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Gary Herbert and Republican legislative leaders are scheduled to meet with Obama administration officials in Washington, D.C., next week to talk about Medicaid expansion.

The meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell would be the first formal gathering since the governor and lawmakers weren't able to agree on a plan during the 2015 Legislature.

The standoff led Herbert to announce on the last day of the legislative session in March that he and legislative leaders would continue to work on the issue, with a resolution expected by the end of July.

Though lawmakers and the governor's office have talked informally the past few weeks, they haven't started putting together a proposal. Legislative leaders called the Washington meeting the first one of substance.

In addition to Herbert, Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and the two lawmakers who proposed opposing Medicaid bills, Sen. Brian Shiozawa, R-Cottonwood Heights, and House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, are expected to attend the meeting with Burwell next Wednesday.

Niederhauser said he sees it as more of a "discovery, talk about possibilities" type of meeting. He said it's an opportunity to ask questions about sustainability and predictability of a Medicaid expansion plan.


We all agree that we want to cover the gap. We want to make sure that those in the coverage gap are able to get insurance. And we all have, I believe, come to an agreement that we need to work on the sustainability of Medicaid expansion with regards to the state budget.

–Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy


"We all agree that we want to cover the gap. We want to make sure that those in the coverage gap are able to get insurance," he said. "And we all have, I believe, come to an agreement that we need to work on the sustainability of Medicaid expansion with regards to the state budget."

About 60,000 Utahns fall into what is called the coverage gap, defined as those who earn less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level and don't qualify for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act without Medicaid expansion.

Over the past year, Herbert has made several trips to Washington to negotiate the waivers from Burwell and other administration officials to allow the state to create its own plan.

But Healthy Utah failed to win support in the Legislature, with strong opposition from Hughes and other House Republicans even though the GOP-dominated Senate approved the governor's plan.

House Republicans offered their own scaled-back plan that would use more state money, warning that the federal government couldn't sustain the promised Medicaid payments.

Herbert said last week that he talked to President Barack Obama during his visit to Utah earlier this month about the need to control the cost to the state, and that Obama had passed along his concerns to Burwell.

The governor said the upcoming negotiations would focus on finding ways to cap the costs of his plan for using the Medicaid expansion money available under Obama's health care law to provide health insurance to low-income Utahns.

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Dennis Romboy

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