On June 30, when fiscal year 2006 ends, their dental and vision benefits will evaporate. The Legislature chose not to fund these
benefits in its regular session. Then, when Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. requested $2 million in emergency funding for 40,000 of the neediest clients at a special legislative session late last month, lawmakers refused to even debate the proposal.
Republican leaders didn't like Huntsman's approach. They said they found his effort to circumvent their process "offensive." And now the Health Department hasn't the inclination to surpass its budget to keep the programs funded. Officials explained they choose not to bypass the will of the Legislature.
That would most certainly risk the budgetary wrath next year of the lopsided Republican Legislature, which makes an art out of punishing those who stand against it.
So teeth will rot, abscesses will form, jaws will ache, infections will spread. Visits to hospital emergency rooms will jump, because this is where the neglected poor go for care.
Experts say this will cost taxpayers up to two-thirds more in medical expenses that front-end dental care could have prevented.
It's bad government policy, people. And it's your money.
The needy lined up again on Monday, like countless times before: People in wheelchairs; a single mother, visually impaired and living with congenital glaucoma since the age of 10; a young woman with mental illness who proudly described how she has cut back on her medications and attends college part-time.
There was an older couple who immigrated from Russia, living in a Salt Lake high-rise for the disabled and elderly poor. The woman, in thickly accented and halting English smiled and thanked the Health Department administrators for all they had done in the past to fix her teeth.
"Everyone would like to give happiness to a lot of people," she said, smiling. "This," she said, pointing to her teeth, "is a great happiness."
You should hear and see these folks. They beg. Their eyes tear up. They raise their voices. They spill out the most personal information - the kind you and I would never imagine sharing with strangers. They talk about their psychotropic meds, which they need simply to face the day. They discuss deeply personal and invasive medical procedures.
They offer up every scrap of dignity, and it gets them nowhere. The Legislature finds other "needs" more deserving, like a stealth $2 million to help bail out the perennially struggling This Is The Place State Park, or $15 million for a Capitol parking structure.
The new garage, thankfully, will allow more lobbyists to park for free. Because be sure of this: The shills for Intermountain Health Care and Questar aren't using UTA paratransit to get to the Hill.
Chris Bleak, chief of staff for House Speaker Greg Curtis was there, gathering information for his boss and the other GOP leaders. Bleak told me Curtis and the others understand "that these decisions do impact people. "But he added that what goes missing in many stories is the roughly $1.6 billion funding for Medicaid growth and other health and human service needs in the $9.5 billion budget.
"You and I would probably agree that education is underfunded and roads are underfunded," Bleak said. "There is no shortage of needs and we have to balance those needs."
Meanwhile, Medicaid officials are advising clients to get on the phone and schedule eye and dental exams before July 1. After that, they're on their own.
hmullen@sltrib.com
