美国国家公共电台 NPR Utah Voters Approved Medicaid Expansion, But State Lawmakers Are Balking

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Utah residents may have thought they were done fighting about health care back in November. That's when voters approved a ballot¹ measure to expand Medicaid to more uninsured adults, but now Utah lawmakers want to roll that back. KUER reporter Erik Neumann has been tracking this renewed debate inside the Capitol and also outside on the snowy streets of Salt Lake City.

ERIK NEUMANN, BYLINE²: Health care advocates are so mad they've hired a billboard³ truck to drive around the city urging voters to call their lawmakers. I jumped into the truck to chat with driver Gregory Shalfont as he was doing laps around the Capitol building.

It's funny. It's kind of an old-school approach to getting the message out there. We're literally⁴ just in, like, a big U-Haul with an electronic billboard on the outside circling it (laughter).

GREGORY SHALFONT: It is, and it's really effective. It shows up real well day or night, and we have sound attached to it.

NEUMANN: Shalfont was working for Utah Decides, the group that helped pass Proposition 3 last November. Utah voters hoped that after six years of talking about Medicaid expansion, it was finally done. They approved it by 53 percent. But when the legislative⁵ session began last week, the issue erupted again. Republicans dominate in Utah, and they want to scale back the Medicaid expansion. Some say repeal⁶ it.

ANDREW ROBERTS: We voted for this on November 6. We were very clear about what we wanted, and I think...

NEUMANN: That's Andrew Roberts with Utah Decides inside the Capitol. His group says with full Medicaid expansion, 150,000 uninsured residents could finally get coverage⁷.

ROBERTS: We are frustrated⁸, and I think Utahns are frustrated.

NEUMANN: The same thing is happening in Idaho. Voters passed Medicaid expansion last November, and now their lawmakers are also trying to roll it back. State Senator Allen Christensen, a Republican, is leading the rollback effort in Utah. He says his bill would still expand Medicaid but would cap the number of patients who would qualify. He claims that what the voters originally passed in November would bust⁹ the state's budget.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ALLEN CHRISTENSEN: They wanted Medicaid expansion, and that's what we're doing. They didn't fill in the proper blanks. We are filling in those blanks for them. They are not obligated to balance the budget. We are.

NEUMANN: Christensen's bill says instead of making around $16,000 per year to qualify, you could make at most 12,000. And it would add work requirements.

MATT SLONAKER: From the perspective of voters, I think voters have a right to be furious right now.

NEUMANN: That's Matt Slonaker. He leads the Utah Health Policy Project, a group that supported expansion. He says changing Proposition 3 would mean fewer people get health coverage, and the state would get less money from the federal government. Not only that, it could make voters disillusioned¹⁰.

SLONAKER: Why would voters ever want to pursue ballot initiatives and direct democracy if the legislature's just going to repeal it anyway?

NEUMANN: No one claims that Medicaid doesn't cost money. That's why the Utah ballot question included a new sales tax increase to pay for it. And supporters point to the fiscal¹¹ experience of other states. Economist¹² Bryce Ward¹³ studied what happened after Montana expanded Medicaid in 2016. Ward says the Medicaid expansion brought in about $600 million in new funds for Montana each year, and that money rippled¹⁴ through the state supporting about 6,000 additional jobs.

BRYCE WARD: You should think of Medicaid expansion as no different than if you had said, oh, hey, somebody's going to open up a factory - right? - and that factory is going to bring, you know, in the case of Montana, $600 million of outside money into the state that we're going to pay to workers here.

NEUMANN: So far, Utah lawmakers remain unconvinced by studies like Ward's. The bill to restrict Medicaid is moving fast and could reach the governor's desk as soon as next week. For NPR News, I'm Erik Neumann in Salt Lake City.

(SOUNDBITE OF WAX TAILOR FEAT¹⁵. ALOE BLACC SONG, "TIME TO GO")

1 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

6 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

8 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

10 disillusioned   

a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的

参考例句：

• I soon became disillusioned with the job. 我不久便对这个工作不再抱幻想了。
• Many people who are disillusioned in reality assimilate life to a dream. 许多对现实失望的人把人生比作一场梦。

11 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

12 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

13 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

14 rippled   

使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The lake rippled gently. 湖面轻轻地泛起涟漪。
• The wind rippled the surface of the cornfield. 微风吹过麦田，泛起一片麦浪。

15 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。