23 pages just to apply, and other reasons advocates say more Utahns aren’t accessing Medicaid

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Utah has a “high level of barriers to accessing Medicaid,” said Carrie Butler, executive director of the nonprofit Utah Public Health Association.

Application is ‘really difficult’ to fill out

Valle agreed it isn’t simple for people to go through enrollment by themselves and said there are families who haven’t been able to finish it or don’t even want to start it because they know it’s not easy., Slonaker said. That means coverage isn’t automatically guaranteed for an entire year. Instead, any time the state gets information about new income, it could spark a new inquiry that a Medicaid member must answer.

Slonaker has seen a pivot in the last decade to lawmakers “accepting some programs as a vehicle forevermore to make sure underserved, low-income folks have access” to health care. In states where access is easier, Butler said, people are more likely to rotate through and use the programs as a leg up until they can get stable again.

Utah’s policymakers seem not to realize that access to health insurance reduces cost for everyone, Herrschaft said.Strohecker pushed back against the critical narratives and said it’s the state’s goal to make sure everyone enrolled in Medicaid has access to high-quality care. Automation also can improve the process long term, Strohecker said. That could include improvements to the application process by using information the state already has to pre-fill certain fields or create drop-down menus to lessen errors, she said.

 

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