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Hatch to Senate: Immigration Reform Must Happen, Affordable Care Act Needs to be Replaced

Brian Grimmett
Sen. Orrin Hatch addresses the Utah Senate

Republican U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch touched on health care, immigration this morning when he addressed the Utah House and Senate Floors at the State Capitol.

Earlier this week, Hatch announced he is co-sponsoring a new Republican-led healthcare bill that he hopes will replace the Affordable Care Act. He says the Patient Choice Affordability, Responsibility, and Empowerment — or CARE — Act will cost less and have fewer mandates than the current health law.

He told the Utah Senate on Friday, the bill would give authority over healthcare, including Medicaid, over to the states and provide reasonable federal funding.

“We’ve put it out there in an open forum to try and get as much comment as we can and to try and improve it every step of the way that we can,”Hatch says. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get healthcare done much better than its being done right now.”

Democratic Senator Luz Robles questioned Hatch about movement on immigration reform in congress. He noted the Senate passed sweeping immigration reforms last summer and now U.S. House Republicans have a plan to back a limited path to citizenship.

“Now the House is a little tougher place,” Hatch says. “They want to do it in sections. But they’re coming to the conclusion that they at least need to give people the right to be here and get rid of this De Facto amnesty.”

Hatch says federal lawmakers are going to have to bite the bullet and pass legislation the right way. 

Whittney Evans grew up southern Ohio and has worked in public radio since 2005. She has a communications degree from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, where she learned the ropes of reporting, producing and hosting. Whittney moved to Utah in 2009 where she became a reporter, producer and morning host at KCPW. Her reporting ranges from the hyper-local issues affecting Salt Lake City residents, to state-wide issues of national interest. Outside of work, she enjoys playing the guitar and getting to know the breathtaking landscape of the Mountain West.
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