During the 2023 Utah State of Reform Health Policy Conference in April, we spoke with Rep. Ken Ivory (R – Midvale), who said one of the main issues he’s tracking is the future of federal financial support for Utah healthcare.
With signals from federal officials indicating the federal government’s majority share of Utah’s health and human services budget is unsustainable, Ivory wants to ensure that a potential decrease in federal financial support won’t impact Utah’s most vulnerable residents.
“We want to look very prudently, very circumspectly, and not just take the federal promise at face value that they’re going to fund these services, because all of their auditors are telling us that it’s unsustainable.
So we look at the most vulnerable in our society, and we’re going to stress test see what the reasonable duration of those promises look like, how we can mitigate any diminishment in funding, and then have a contingency plan.”