With the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the whole of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional, each state is left to decide if they are going to participate in the Medicaid expansion provision of the law. So who is eligible for Utah’s current Medicaid program and what would a Medicaid expansion mean?
Currently in Utah, to get Medicaid health insurance a single person must make less than $16,700 a year (this is an average of all the Medicaid programs) and meet certain categorical criteria. For example, you must be poor and have a child living with you or be poor and permanently disabled for longer than one year. Even living in extreme poverty, such as those who are homeless, does not automatically qualify one for Medicaid.
At Fourth Street Clinic, a nonprofit health care provider that serves only those who are homeless, 98 percent of patients make less than $10,000 a year, but only 17-22 percent on average have Medicaid health insurance. Salt Lake Tribune
