Deseret News | Scott Matheson Jr.'s response to Deseret Morning News questionnaire

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Scott Matheson Jr.'s response to Deseret Morning News questionnaire

Published: Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 7:07 p.m. MDT

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5. A lawmaker recently proposed eliminating the asset test for children to qualify for Medicaid, allowing 7,000 additional children to get insurance. While the proposal would have cost several million dollars, the idea would be to fund it through a cigarette tax increase. Would you support such a proposal?

Foremost among the state's public health insurance programs is Medicaid. The federal government pays nearly three quarters of the cost of this program. The benefits of Medicaid for people with low incomes and for the state health care system should be extended by adjusting eligibility to cover more of those without health insurance, particularly opening Medicaid to more low-income children.

Utah's children should have access to quality health care, but approximately 80,000 of our children are uninsured. Effective programs such as Medicaid and CHIP provide important health services to many of Utah's needy children, but these programs are not fully utilized.

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Currently in Utah, a low-income family that qualifies for Medicaid based on its income will not qualify for the program if the family has modest assets. In other words, if a low-income family owns a modest car or savings account, it may not qualify for Medicaid, depending on the value of these assets. Utah is one of only four states that have not eliminated this asset test for children. As a result, 6,000 to 7,000 Utah children in households with incomes below the federal poverty level are enrolled in CHIP instead of Medicaid. Elimination of the asset test would allow these children to enroll in Medicaid, which is a more comprehensive health program that is intended for children in families living below the federal poverty level. This, in turn, would open up the CHIP program to more Utah children. Until we can fully accomplish this goal, an interim step would be to explore raising the asset threshold amounts. Utah traditionally relies on the cigarette tax to fund health-related programs, and we should consider this option to help fund these changes.

6. Some lawmakers want the state Department of Health to implement a preferred drug list to keep prescription costs down for consumers. Would you favor or disfavor a preferred drug list?