Utah submits Medicaid plan to help with homeless, treatment
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah asked the Trump administration this week to approve a limited Medicaid plan to help the homeless and those in need of mental health and drug addiction treatment.
The plan is part of a state strategy to curb violence and drug trafficking in a Salt Lake City neighborhood near an overcrowded homeless shelter, but it's a very limited alternative to expanding Utah's Medicaid plans as offered under President Barack Obama's health care law.
Utah officials decided not to take the federal government's offer under the law to help open the state's Medicaid program up to insure more of the working poor. GOP state officials said they worried more people would sign up than Utah could afford and they worried that federal officials grappling with national debt could renege on the offer to pay the costs.
Instead, Utah passed a pared-down plan insuring homeless people making less than about $600 a year or people who need mental health or substance abuse treatment, particularly those in the criminal justice system.
Read more: http://news.hjnews.com/ap/state/utah-submits-medicaid-plan-to-help-with-homeless-treatment/article_7059becc-30bb-57e9-8535-2b685485e4da.html