Dental funding sidestepped
GOP lawmakers vote to keep issue in committee
Providing the extra Medicaid funds "is the right and moral thing to do," Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, pleaded with the House Rules Committee after Senate Republicans had already refused to hear the issue.
But on party line votes — Republicans opposing the spending, Democrats for it — the $2 million bill was held by the committee. It was also withheld from the Senate floor in a party line vote of the full Senate.
While lawmakers refused to authorize $2 million for poor people's dental care, they approved spending $15 million to build a 270-car parking garage east of the now-under-renovation state Capitol Building.
"We are disappointed that (the $2 million for disabled Utahns' dental care) did not even come up for a debate," said Mike Mower, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s deputy chief of staff and spokesman.
"We recognize that ultimately (the $2 million for Medicaid dental) is a decision for the Legislature," said Mower.
Republicans' decision not to debate the bill at all was made with expediency in mind, said Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem.
"There's no need to debate a bill that's going to fail," he said.
The action enraged and saddened the several dozen Medicaid recipients who gathered at the Capitol Wednesday afternoon to urge lawmakers to vote in favor of the funding.
"This is an asinine perspective for them to take with people who have need," said Salt Lake resident Hal Jackson. "The leaders of this community need to consider whether they represent the people, who are the heart of the community."
"This is about politics, it's not about people," said a tearful Ricki Landers, who earlier in the day had joined a group that gathered outside the House Chambers holding out their caps and begging for money for dental and vision benefits for adult Medicaid beneficiaries.
"I don't think they could send any more clear of a message," said Bill Tibbitts with Crossroads Urban Center. "What they're saying is 65,000 Medicaid recipients don't matter. That's what they're saying."
The $2 million would have attracted nearly $5 million in matching federal dollars and would have allowed an estimated 40,000 blind, aged and disabled Utahns to receive emergency dental care. A full restoration of dental benefits, a so-called "optional" service under the Medicaid program, would cost $3.9 million and served 65,000 recipients.
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