SB284 authorizes the Utah Medicaid program to cover doula services, which include non-medical support during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. The state Department of Health and Human Services must apply for a Medicaid state plan amendment by October 1, 2025, in consultation with stakeholders such as patients, doulas, and healthcare providers. The bill requires the department to set training and registration rules for doulas serving Medicaid enrollees.

The Utah State House of Representatives passed SB284 on March 5, 2025 by a vote of 55 to 16. We have assigned pluses to the nays because neither healthcare nor social welfare is the legitimate object of government. Medicaid, as with many other “entitlement programs,” discriminatorily and unjustly provides “eligible” low-income persons, who have little or no tax liability, with government funds at the expense of other hard-working citizens. Utah must reject the use of taxpayer dollars for this ever-expanding and unsustainable federal-state program that is not authorized under Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution.