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News Release

HHS APPROVES UTAH PLAN TO HELP LOW-INCOME WORKERS
PURCHASE EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH COVERAGE

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced the approval of a Utah Medicaid waiver amendment that will help as many as 6,000 uninsured, low-income residents to purchase health care coverage through employer-sponsored insurance.

The Medicaid Section 1115 waiver amendment approved today will grant monthly subsidies to low-income workers who have access to employer-sponsored insurance but cannot afford to buy it.

"With this change, Utah is helping hard-working residents to afford the health coverage offered through their employer," Secretary Thompson said. "By helping cover the costs of these insurance premiums, the state is taking the kind of creative approach to helping the uninsured that we are encouraging across the country."

To qualify for help with employer-sponsored insurance premiums, workers must have incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The federal poverty level is $8,980 for an individual.

HHS also approved Utah's plan to lower costs of enrollment in its waiver, the Primary Care Network. Those individuals on the state's general assistance program whose income is at 54 percent of the FPL or lower will have their annual $50 enrollment fee reduced.

"By far most uninsured Americans are low-wage workers whose employers don't offer coverage, or that coverage is too expensive," said Tom Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "Utah is setting a fine example of how states can address the needs of the uninsured without increasing the burden on an overtaxed Medicaid system."

Today's approval is an amendment to an 1115 waiver granted to the state in February 2002. That waiver expanded primary and preventive services to up to 25,000 state residents who otherwise would not have access to health care.

The Bush Administration has pursued a broad strategy to expand access to health care for the uninsured. The President's fiscal year 2004 budget proposal would continue to expand community health centers that care for the uninsured, strengthen and modernize the Medicaid program, offer health tax credits to help individuals obtain insurance, and extend Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) coverage to more Americans who otherwise would go without coverage.

More information about the President's initiatives to help the uninsured is available at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030211.html.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: May 30, 2003