For an extra penny on the price of a movie ticket, RyLee Curtis said, Utahns can provide essential health care to 150,000 of their neighbors, friends and family members.
But state leaders warn such an expansion of Medicaid could eventually overtake much of the state budget, crowding out other needs.
It’s a choice voters will make in November, when they consider an initiative to fully expand Medicaid in the state. The proposal would combine roughly $90 million — through a state sales tax increase of 0.15 percent — with $800 million in federal funding to provide medical coverage to Utah’s poor.