The comments made by Rep. Robert Spendlove about Medicaid expansion and work requirements (”Sponsor of Utah’s Medicaid work requirements unfazed by Kentucky court decision”) are, at best, specious and misleading.
Spendlove argues that because Utah has not yet accepted Medicaid expansion (despite two-thirds of Utahns supporting it), the proposed Utah work requirement is intended to increase the number of people covered. This is patently absurd: The requirement is a change to an existing program Utah’s Legislature has repeatedly rejected, and would cause fewer people to be covered than would be under full expansion. The concept that changing the program to cover fewer people serves to cover more just because hyperpartisan legislators have turned down our own taxpayer money for expansion is quite a stretch.
The Legislature’s partial expansion is not only inadequate, it’s doomed to failure. The only way we’re going to get Utahns the health care they need to achieve self-reliance is through voting for Proposition 3, Utah Decides Healthcare. This is our chance to do what our Legislature wouldn’t do: put people over politics.
Paul Gibbs, West Valley City