Gov. Gary Herbert says the federal government is getting more and more flexible on how states implement alternatives to full Medicaid expansion, which makes him confident his “Healthy Utah” plan will get the green light.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is expecting to win approval to use federal money for Medicaid expansion as part of his “Healthy Indiana” proposal, which is similar to Herbert’s “Healthy Utah.”
“I don’t think the concern is whether I can get it done,” says Herbert. “There’s a lot of similarities between what Mike (Pence) is doing in Indiana and the ‘Healthy Utah’ plan, which encourages me that our plan will be approved by the Obama administration.”
Earlier this week lawmakers said they would be reluctant to approve any Medicaid expansion plans until the 2015 session. Herbert says he’s sure they will come around once his plan is approved by Washington.
“It’s just a matter of convincing the Legislature it’s not a bait and switch, that they’re not buying a pig in a poke, that there’s not some kind of obligation down the line that’s going to bite them in the behind. Those are some of the concerns they are rightfully going to raise, but they’ll see this is a common sense solution to help those in need.”
