The Salt Lake Tribune wrote an editorial in March 2016 calling Dunnigan’s Medicaid bill “a shameful admission that anti-federal, anti-poor, anti-administration politics matter more in Utah, or at least in its so-called House of Representatives, than does anything approaching human decency.” Some scathing words! Although his bill covered the neediest of the needy, thousands were left without coverage as a result of fear – fear of an Obama success and fear of monetary costs.
Deseret News reported on uninsured children – how Gov. Herbert’s Healthy Utah Plan would have covered 44,000 parents and their children, and in a later article, how 9.4% of Utah’s children go uninsured, especially Hispanic children.
Had Dunnigan voted for Gov. Herbert’s plan, thousands of families could have been insured. His refusal to expand Medicaid to support single mothers, students, and poor families indicates a value of politics over people.
