A Thursday luncheon hosted by the Utah Foundation featured all four major gubernatorial candidates responding to the findings of the 2016 Utah Priorities Project. The survey conducted found that the biggest issue on the minds of Utah voters this year is healthcare.
Shawn Teigen, Research Director with the Utah Foundation, said that while healthcare has been a big concern over the last few election cycles, its importance to voters has grown.
“Priority number one—which was a surprise to probably a lot of people and everybody in our office—is healthcare. It’s been on our top five list since 2004,” Teigan said. “It was the fifth most important for the last three gubernatorial election cycles. [During the 2010 special election] it was fourth most important and then we pop up to number one.”
State lawmakers have been debating how to fill the so-called “coverage gap” among Utahns who don’t qualify for traditional Medicaid yet can’t afford health insurance. Teigan said that other healthcare issues have kept people talking about the topic.
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