The Utah Legislature would have us believe that Proposition 3 is too expensive to implement in its current form and, of course, the Legislature knows all!
I wonder if they have read Robert Gehrke's column of Feb. 6, which cites results from Colorado and New Mexico.
In the case of Colorado, a much higher than expected initial enrollment occurred, but 31,000 new jobs in the health care sector and an additional $3.85 billion for the economy more than overcame the problem. In Arizona, Medicaid expansion generated 21,000 new jobs and $2.7 billion in economic output.
I suggest our legislators read the Kaiser Family Foundation report "Implications of the ACA Medicaid Expansion: A Look at the Data and Evidence" for a more comprehensive analysis of the results of Medicaid expansion. I hope they will then realize how short-sighted is their position.
Based on that report and the information in Gehrke's column, Utah can't afford to do anything but implement full Medicaid expansion.
Kermit Heid, Salt Lake City
