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Utah House adopts fourth substitute to SB 96 to expand Medicaid coverage; 56–19
Summary
After hours of debate on fiscal sustainability and waiver conditions, the Utah House passed the fourth substitute to Senate Bill 96 — a Medicaid-expansion package that preserves a waiver-seeking approach while including a House-backed backstop — by a 56–19 vote. The House rejected a broader sixth substitute earlier in the day.
The Utah House of Representatives on Feb. 8 voted 56–19 to pass the fourth substitute to Senate Bill 96, a measure that seeks to expand Medicaid coverage for adults in the state’s coverage gap while directing the Department of Health to pursue federal waivers and building in a legislative backstop if those waivers are not approved.
Representative Dunnigan, the House sponsor, told colleagues the fourth substitute aims to protect the program’s long-term finances by removing a guaranteed cost-of-living increase to provider payment rates that he said accounts for about 30 percent of the measure’s projected cost. “One of the financial challenges with Proposition 3 is that it provides a cost-of-living pay raise to providers,” he said on the House floor. He described the substitute as a way to secure coverage now while continuing to press for a more favorable federal match.
The debate focused on two linked…
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