When Gov. Gary Herbert announced his Healthy Utah plan in 2014 to address Obamacare issues related to Medicaid, Utah’s right wing combined in knee-jerk fashion against it. The plan was labeled “Medicaid expansion” and demonized as a policy betrayal to the fundamental principles of conservatism.
Nearly a year and a half later of productive dialogue and negotiations between the governor and House and Senate leaders, the Legislature just passed a bill increasing Medicaid coverage. And surprisingly, nary a word from Utah’s right wing. Certainly the “principles” remained the same. Yet silence from the right side of the peanut gallery. Even the left side of that gallery proclaimed that the new bill was definitely not Medicaid expansion. After all of the political weeping and gnashing of teeth against Medicaid expansion from Utah’s right wing, one might have expected some expressed concerns. Au contraire.
