Utah's Premium Partnership for Health Insurance (UPP) zeroes in on an estimated 45,400 adults who have full-time jobs and could be covered by their employer, if they could afford the premiums.
Health officials peg Utah's uninsured population at 292,800, though other estimates cite higher numbers. Of that, 59 percent blame their lack of coverage on the cost of insurance, according to a health department survey.
"That's too many," said health director David Sundwall.
Here's how UPP works. An employee - say, a single, working mother of two children - would pay her share of her employer's premium and then get reimbursed by the state, $150 for herself and $100 for each child. Assuming her share of the premium totaled $400, that would bring her out-of-pocket cost to $50.
Under Utah law, employers who offer coverage must pay at least half of a worker's premium, but are not obligated to help pay for spouses and children.
The program is being hailed as a critical first step toward fulfilling Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s pledge to halve the state's uninsured population by 2010.
Lawmakers hope the financial incentive is enough to encourage families to enroll. UPP is a revised version of the Covered at Work incentive unveiled under former Gov. Mike Leavitt, now regarded as a failure for having drawn fewer than 100 enrollees.
Advocates for the poor say that's because the former subsidy of $50 was too low. For two years, they have lobbied the Legislature to expand the program and boost the subsidy, paid by federal and state Medicaid dollars.
Even UPP has its limitations, however. Enrollment is capped at 1,000 individuals and it is open only to low-income households. A family of three would have to earn between $2,075 and $2,767 a month, no more.
Lawmakers will weigh legislation this winter to raise the cap by 4,000 or 9,000, but are waiting to gauge peoples' interest, said Rep. Kory Holdaway, the Taylorsville Republican who sponsored the bill creating the program.
"It's kind of a fence we're walking in terms of how much of a subsidy we need to encourage people to sign up," Holdaway said.
Monday's announcement coincided with release of a national report showing health care premiums in Utah are growing at seven times the rate of workers' earnings.
Workplace health plan premiums rose 72 percent between 2000 and 2006, compared to a 10 percent hike in median earnings, reports Families USA, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Meanwhile, families are getting less coverage for their dollar as insurance companies cut benefits and raise deductibles and co-payments, said Ron Pollack, the nonprofit's executive director.
kstewart@sltrib.com
