Health & Wellbeing

Utah Family Caregivers Provide $4.15 Billion

Notalys LLC released its report, Expanding Utah's Health Insurance Options today at a press briefing at the Utah State Capitol, outlining the differences between two plans that were under consideration by the Utah legislature during the last session. Governor Herbert's Healthy Utah plan was passed by the Utah Senate, and Utah Cares was passed by the Utah House of Representatives. Because no agreement was reached on how to cover the more than 50,000 low-income Utahns who currently fall into a health insurance coverage gap--making too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for health insurance subsidies--a committee of House and Senate leaders, the Governor Herbert, and Lt. Governor Spencer Cox set July 31 as the deadline for coming up with a plan to address this population.

In a 6-3 decision issued Thursday, June 25, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of King v Burwell that federal subsidies for people to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act (Act) are constitutional. The issue in the case was whether subsidies would only be allowed if the subsidies were given through exchanges that the states set up themselves. Because 34 declined to set up their own exchanges and defaulted to the federal exchanges instead, the question was whether the provision of subsidies through the federal exchange was authorized by the Act. According to Utah Policy, approximately 87 percent of enrollees in the federal exchanges receive subsidies to buy health insurance, or about 6.4 million people according to the Obama administration. In Utah, 67 percent of Utahns who use the federal exchange will be able to keep their subsidies.

By Danny Harris, Advocacy Director, AARP Utah

In a statement released today, AARP Utah State Director Alan Ormsby said, “AARP Utah is disappointed that the Utah legislature did not advance Healthy Utah into law this session. This means that thousands of people who fall into the coverage gap will continue to suffer because of their lack of access to affordable health care. Some will die while waiting for treatment. It is truly disheartening when political posturing gets the upper hand over the outpouring of support for Healthy Utah from the public and organizations around the state. We hope that this vital piece of legislation will be considered and passed quickly in a special session of the legislature and intend to work with the committee to help ensure that this happens.”