SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday, 8 March 2003.
Health and Human Services: The state's four
preschool programs for children with autism, which were
targeted to lose all $1.6 million in state funding
early in the session, were spared the ax.
The Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) will
get $1.9 million to hire 51 new caseworkers and
trainers in response to a legislative audit and threats
by a federal judge to order allocation of the money to
comply with a decade-old lawsuit.
The Foster Care Citizen Review Board, which reviews
the cases of every child in DCFS custody, lost half its
budget – a cut of $320,000.
Despite $1 million in new funding, a budget shortfall
in the Baby Watch Early Intervention Program, which
serves kids under 3 who are developmentally delayed,
could force services to be pulled from infants and
toddlers.
Also, about 2,125 fewer people will receive mental
health and substance abuse treatment because of a $1.5
million cutback in the budget for the Division of
Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
-- Jacob Santini
Medicaid, Children's Insurance: Lawmakers restored
much of the Medicaid budget, a move that prevented
6,000 people from losing their health care coverage.
Lawmakers also restored Medicaid funding for physical
therapy and audiology.
But dental and vision services, excluding children and
pregnant women, were not restored. Lawmakers eliminated Medicaid-funded
circumcisions.
-- Jacob Santini
Preventative Preventive Health Care: For the fourth
year, Sen. Paula Julander, D-Salt Lake City, tried and
failed to get her colleagues to support a law requiring
health insurance policies offered in the state to cover
a handful of preventive health tests and
treatments.
The bill covered tests and treatments for osteoporosis
and prostate, breast, cervical, colon and colorectal
cancers. Also included were prescriptive
contraceptives, with an exception for a "religious
employer" to opt out of such coverage.
-- Jacob Santini
Residential Treatment: If it becomes law, substitute
House Bill 137 will allow cities and counties to
exclude a residential treatment center if it "would
likely create a fundamental change in the character of
a neighborhood."
The measure also would allow local governments to
limit the number of occupants at such centers.
-- Leo Tyson Dirr
Smallpox Liability: House Bill 160 was passed and
signed into law to protect Utah's public health
agencies from liability in cases of side effects from
the smallpox vaccine. The law was needed to begin
smallpox vaccinations among a small group of Utah
public health workers.
Fluoride: House Bill 64 passed, requiring any votes on removing fluoride from municipal water supplies to be held at least four years after a vote that approved the addition of the substance. Under the law, the earliest a vote could be held to remove fluoride from water would be November 2004. Salt Lake area water suppliers are slated to begin adding fluoride in October.
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