Protect Medicaid so Medicaid Can Protect Utahns
Broad alliance of Utah healthcare organizations and Medicaid recipients to announce campaigns to protect Medicaid at state and federal level.
Salt Lake City, Utah – The Protect Medicaid Utah Coalition launched a campaign to highlight the importance of Medicaid in Utah, the devastating impact of potential cuts, and next steps in the fight to preserve essential healthcare coverage.
“We are coming together with partner organizations, healthcare advocates, consumer representatives and their family members to tell politicians in DC and bureaucrats here in Salt Lake City to protect Medicaid. In order for Utah to be safe and healthy and strong, we need a strong and healthy Medicaid,” said Stephanie Burdick, Consumer Representative on the Utah Medicaid Advisory Committee.
In the past two weeks, Utah’s Medicaid program has been hit by devastating proposals at both the federal and state levels. In Washington, Congress is proposing cuts to Medicaid in the federal budget reconciliation process, threatening healthcare for more than 200,000 Utahns who rely on the program for essential services.
Angela Tuner, a mother of children with disabilities and advocate for Medicaid in Utah, shared how Medicaid saved her family from financial hardship at the most challenging time when she and her husband lost their newborn daughter to a severe medical condition.
“As grieving parents, I cannot imagine paying her medical bills that were astronomical on top of her funeral expenses. We were first-time parents and this was our first child.”
She went on to share that Medicaid provided on-going support for her children with epilepsy to help them get through school and to an individual with intellectual disabilities that their family hosts through the state’s Division of Services for People with Disabilities.
“I urge our lawmakers to understand the human cost of these proposed cuts to Medicaid. These are not just numbers on a page; they are the health and well-being of our children, seniors, our neighbors with disabilities and countless hardworking Utah families. The future of countless Utah families hangs in the balance right now with the proposed cuts.”
These proposed cuts would impact Utahns from all walks of life. Nate Crippes, Public Affairs Supervising Attorney at the Disability Law Center, described what these federal funding cuts would mean for some of Utah’s most vulnerable people.
“Proposed cuts, like reducing the federal matching percentage for Medicaid expansion, will absolutely impact people with disabilities. Nearly 60% of Utahns on Medicaid expansion have mental illness or a substance use disorder. To suggest a cut will not impact people with disabilities is just untrue.”
Ciriac Alvarez Valle, Senior Policy Analyst at Voices for Utah Children, described what Medicaid means for Utah’s mothers, children, and families.
“The cuts being proposed will negatively impact families across our state. Per capita caps and block grants will only shift the burden and cost to our state and to our families, and in times of crisis, like a recession, the consequences could be devastating. What happens when a family loses coverage during an economic downturn? What happens when a mother can’t afford prenatal care because the funding was kept? Medicaid helps mothers deliver their baby safely. It helps keep medically complex kids in their community. And it helps families who need affordable health care.”
Rachel Craig, Government Affairs Manager at the Association For Utah Community Health (AUCH), which represents Utah’s 14 Community Health Center organizations, says that Rural Utah would be hit particularly hard by cuts to the Medicaid program. These Health Centers provide integrated primary dental behavioral health, substance use disorder, and pharmacy services for over 170,000 Utah patients annually, with over 60,000 of these patients live in rural or frontier communities in the state and more than half of Utah’s health centers operate in rural communities.
“Cuts to the Medicaid program will have a disparate negative impact on rural Utahns. Rural and frontier communities already suffer from some of the worst healthcare shortages in the nation with long drives to any type of provider and families often having to take on additional time and expense of overnight trips to the Wasatch front for specialty care. Clinics and hospitals serving rural Utahns rely on Medicaid to keep their doors open. Workforce shortages and rising costs of care have put intense financial pressure on rural providers, and Medicaid is a key revenue source. Elimination of Medicaid expansion or limits on federal funding through per capita caps or block grants will increase provider instability in areas that have always lacked access to care. Rural health centers and hospitals operate on thin financial margins, any revenue loss could wipe out the only health care provider for 50 miles or more.”
Stacy Stanford, Regional Senior Manager of Grassroots Organizing at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network shared what Medicaid means for Utahns with cancer.
“1 in 10 people with a history of cancer rely on Medicaid for their health insurance. And 1 in 3 children with cancer were enrolled in Medicaid at the time of diagnosis. Access to Medicaid increases cancer survival rates, increases the number of people who get cancer screenings and preventive services, helps more cancer patients and survivors get insurance coverage, leads to more early cancer diagnoses and helps people with cancer access timely treatment. Protecting cancer patients means protecting Medicaid.”
Tom Merrill, founding principal of Redstone, a health policy research and advisory firm headquartered here in Utah, described Medicaid’s positive impact on Utah’s economy,
“What’s become abundantly clear in my work on Medicaid is that it’s an economic winner: it helps the most vulnerable avoid poverty and oftentimes get back on their own two feet. Moreover, Medicaid has been instrumental in supporting young families just entering the workforce. The program is not only good for beneficiaries, but is also good for the economy by helping build the middle class.”
Meanwhile, as Congress debates federal cuts to the program, the state of Utah released its own proposal to restrict Medicaid eligibility based on recipients’ ability to navigate work requirements.
Evan Done, Advocacy & Public Policy Director with Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA), described how Utah’s Medicaid work requirement proposal would impact Utahns with behavioral and mental health conditions.
“The proposal itself notes that employment can support mental health. We agree that meaningful work can be beneficial. But this proposal gets the equation backward. For many individuals battling significant behavioral health challenges, stable healthcare isn’t a reward for work; it’s the foundation that makes work possible. Imagine trying to navigate complex online portals, track hours, meet strict deadlines like applying for 48 jobs, and attend mandatory training when you’re already fighting crippling anxiety or deep depression. Executive dysfunction, a common symptom, can make these bureaucratic tasks feel insurmountable. The constant stress of potentially losing the very healthcare needed for stability, can actually worsen these conditions.”
Rachel Craig made clear that work requirements blocking access to Medicaid coverage would uniquely burden rural Utahns.
“Work requirements would also reduce access to care outside the Wasatch Front. Our rural communities often lack job opportunities, with rates of unemployment higher than in Utah’s cities and suburbs. Expecting rural Utahns to comply with a work requirement, one that demands applying to 48 jobs in a community that does not even have 20 employers, is illogical and will not decrease unemployment. It will only increase uninsured rates and decrease the amount of rural Utahns accessing preventative care.”
Burdick concluded the press conference by calling Utahns into action to protect the Medicaid program.
“I am reminded of a scripture in Deuteronomy that says we drink water from wells we did not dig, we stand under shade of trees we did not plant. Because of those who protected Medicaid in the past so many lives were touched and changed and saved. Protect Medicaid Utah is asking Utahns to join us in protecting Medicaid for today and tomorrow and future generations. We encourage Utahns to join us by visiting our website ProtectMedicaidUtah.org, and become an ambassador and defender of Medicaid. Here you can sign our Protect Medicaid Pledge, share your Medicaid story, submit a comment to the DHHS to oppose the bureaucratic mandatory work requirement, and find other ways to stay engaged in this fight.”
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Find photos of the event here.
Protect Medicaid Utah is a growing coalition of consumers, healthcare advocates, and organizations united in protecting Utah’s Medicaid program against harmful cuts. Partnering organizations include: Disability Law Center, USARA, AUCH, United Way of Salt Lake, NAMI Utah, Utah Consumer Oral Health Coalition, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Voices for Utah’s Children, United Today Stronger Tomorrow, Utah Health Policy Project, and TBCK Foundation.