Utah Legislature: What's Up on the Hill?

By: State: Utah | Source: AARP.org

The General Session of the 2009 Utah Legislature runs January 26–March 12.

Democracy Day at the Legislature occurred on February 2. More than 200 citizens including AARP Utah's Area Coordinators, Executive Council and other key volunteers participated.

Sponsored by AARP Utah, Utah Community Action Partnership Association, and the Utah Housing Coalition, this annual event connects Utahns with state legislators and the legislative process. Speakers discussed advocacy and specific issues in the current session.

Don Mathis, President of the Community Action Partnership, the national organization representing interests of 1,000 Community Action Agencies who fight poverty at the local level, provided the keynote.

Lunch with the Legislators was held in the Capitol Rotunda. Participants discussed issues with the legislators from their districts.

AARP Utah's 2009 priority issues follow:

Health Care Reform: Representative David Clark, the Speaker for the Utah House of Representatives, introduced HB 188, which will be the cornerstone piece of legislation dealing with health care reform this session. Among other provisions, it seeks to create affordable alternatives to basic health insurance and increase transparency in the system so that consumers can compare health care insurance plans. AARP is working with U-SHARE, a coalition of community, health, provider, business, and academic organizations to promote legislation that will ensure that quality health care is affordable and accessible for all Utahns.

Preferred Drug List: Senator Allen Christensen introduced SB 86 and SB 87, which would strengthen the preferred drug list (PDL) in Medicaid so that doctors could not override the list (which favors equally effective yet less expensive drugs over high-cost drugs) and clarifies the drugs subject to review for inclusion on the list. AARP strongly supports both efforts.

Identity Theft: Representative Eric Hutchings introduced HB 285, which will increase the notice and protection given to consumers when their personal information is stolen or lost from a company's database or files. We are working with the Utah Attorney General's office to support this legislation.

Tobacco Tax: AARP Utah is part the Alliance for Tobacco-Free Living seeking an increase in the tobacco tax to fund health care programs in the state particularly those that help prevent and treat tobacco-related illnesses. Although this effort hit a roadblock in a Senate committee, we are still trying to pass legislation by working with the House of Representatives.

Medicaid: AARP Utah opposes cuts to critical programs in Medicaid including support of improvements to the Preferred Drug List (PDL) which would save the state money when it purchases prescription drugs for program recipients.

Securities Regulation: Representative Jim Bird introduced amendments to Utah's Uniform Securities Act in HB 78. AARP Utah will help ensure that changes to law regulating the Division of Securities will protect investors from fraud.
 
To get involved here are three actions to take:

• Visit www.aarp.org/ut; click on Read The Latest Utah News.
• Become an AARP Utah Advocacy Volunteer, Contact Gail Goodwin: ggoodwin@aarp.org
• To follow a bill's status, get hearing schedules, listen to hearings on-line, or find state representatives' contact information, visit www.le.state.ut.us.

Other Resources

www.le.state.ut.us