A Call for Weber County Forum Citizen Action: Sign the Support Healthy Utah Petition

Call on state legislators to act now so 89,000 Utahns who are struggling will have access to affordable health coverage

In the interest of spurring a little much-needed Weber County Forum citizen action, we'll highlight this morning's strong Salt Lake Tribune op-ed, wherein AARP Utah state director Alan Ormsby sets forth why his organization supports Governor Herbert's "Healthy Utah" mini-Medicaid expansion plan, which, despite recent Utah legislative setbacks, still remains on the table, as we approach the upcoming 2015 Utah legislative session. Here's Mr. Ormsby's "pitch," in a nutshell:

[The Governor's plan would drive] down the cost of uncompensated care by providing more Utahans with access to affordable health coverage could save the state as much as $51 million a year.
Bottom line: The Healthy Utah Plan makes smart economic sense for our state, while giving tens of thousands of hard-working Utahns the opportunity to stay healthy and build financial security.
We applaud Gov. Herbert for his tireless work to find a Utah solution to this critically important issue — and we call on state legislators to act now so 89,000 Utahns who are struggling will have access to affordable health coverage.

Check out Mr. Ormsby's full guest commentary here:

• Op-ed: Healthy Utah is especially needed for those 50 to 64

It's in this connection that we present the below-linked online petition for your consideration, folks:

• Support Healthy Utah Petition

Please sign the petition and "urge the Utah Legislature to accept Healthy Utah. Help 146,000 of our most in-need citizens get health care, create thousands of new jobs, and bring back to our state $647,700,000 each year by 2021."

Is Utah a truly compassionate state as AARP director Alan Ormsby contends?

We guess we'll soon find out.