Gov. Gary Herbert was helping to pass out holiday turkeys at Crossroads Urban Center on Monday when he got a call from Washington: The federal government approved Utah’s application for full Medicaid expansion.
It was great news, meaning as many as 120,000 low-income Utahns will have access to health insurance with the feds paying 90 cents of every dollar in cost. And they can sign up on Jan. 1.
Bill Tibbitts, an anti-poverty advocate who has fought for the expansion, thanked Herbert for his work to get it done.
“If only they had adopted my Healthy Utah plan five years ago,” the governor replied.