UHPP was instrumental in the following policy changes, coverage expansions, and restorations:

• Passed Senate Bill 42 to implement a Preferred Drug List in Utah’s Medicaid Program, the culmination of a persistent 4-year campaign. And for the first time, we successfully made the case to reinvest the savings in critical, under-funded areas of the Medicaid program;
• Restored Medicaid dental and vision services for adults (see fact sheet);
• Re-opened the Children’s Health Insurance Program to serve up to 12,000 uninsured children (see CHIP fact sheet), setting the stage for success in our collaborative campaign to fully re-authorize CHIP at the Federal level;
• Provided research and lobbying support to soundly defeat HB437, an anti-immigrant bill that would have required applicants to all public assistance programs to provide proof of citizenship status;
• Supported an additional $500,000 in funding for the State Primary Care Grants Program, the only source of state funding for the state’s community health centers.
• Passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 (…Urging Congress to Co-Sponsor and actively seek passage of the Health Partnership Act), though just in the State Senate. We view this as a tool for framing the debate about rising health care costs and the need for systemic and sustainable solutions;
• Helped to defeat HB141, an individual mandate that contained no mechanisms for affordability, imposed stiff fines on those who remain uninsured, and made being uninsured a criminal misdemeanor.

Learn more in our 2006 Report to the Community.          

Of course, none of these victories would have been possible without the wonderful teamwork and cooperation among coalition partners, allies in the Legislature, Department of Health, Insurance Department, Departments of Workforce Services, and Department of Community and Culture.