Medicaid expansion sponsor says Utah lawmakers tried to negotiate with Prop 3 backers, but members of the initiative coalition remember it differently

At a health care reform conference Wednesday, Taylorsville Republican Rep. Jim Dunnigan recalled meeting with the backers of 2018′s Proposition 3 early in the 2019 legislative session to discuss potential changes to the voter-approved full Medicaid expansion plan.

“We tried to find a sustainable path,” said Dunnigan, House sponsor of the Prop 3-replacement bill SB96. “We got a working group of a variety of stakeholders together, including some of the strong proponents.”

Dunnigan’s comments surprised some of the individuals involved in the Prop 3 campaign, who opposed SB96, and who say there was never any meaningful effort to work with the initiative organizers on a compromise.