As a future pediatrician and proud Utahn, I am appalled at both the failure to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program — leaving many children in Utah without sufficient health care in the next few months — and the new proposed plan to extend CHIP by cutting other vital health care programs.
I urge Sen. Orrin Hatch and our other legislators to keep championing the extension of CHIP, but through clean funding that prioritizes health. Funding CHIP is essential, but cutting programs such as the ACA’s prevention and public health program is not the way to do it.
I also urge The Tribune to keep CHIP extension in the limelight, as national news outlets seem to be sweeping it under the rug, and I know The Tribune can do better.
Hanna Saltzman, Salt Lake City