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HB 178 Utah House · 2025 General Session

Noncitizen Health Insurance Policies Amendments

HB 178 amends Utah's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to remove eligibility for certain noncitizen children. It modifies definitions to exclude "qualified non-citizens" and "lawfully present children" from the program's coverage, eliminating a prior pathway for these children to qualify. The bill repeals Section 26B-3-910, which previously governed alternative eligibility for noncitizen children. These changes take effect July 1, 2025, with no new funding required.
Issues: ✗ HealthcareOpposes HealthcareBill removes noncitizen children from CHIP eligibility, restricting health insurance coverage for a vulnerable group by eliminating prior pathways.95% confidence ✗ ImmigrationOpposes ImmigrationBill explicitly removes noncitizen children from CHIP eligibility, restricting access to state health insurance services for immigrants. Directly limits immigrant services per bill language.95% confidence
Bill status introduced 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 21, 2025 Last action Mar 8, 2025
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What changed between versions

Introduced → Substitute #1 · 5 edits
MODERATE
This bill amends Utah's Children's Health Insurance Program to change eligibility definitions and remove alternative eligibility provisions for noncitizen children. The primary change is renaming the eligibility category from 'traditionally eligible child' to 'eligible child' and adding 'qualified non-citizen' as a distinct category, while eliminating the separate 'alternative eligibility' section that allowed certain ineligible children to enroll. The bill also repeals multiple related sections and updates repeal dates for various health-related committees and programs.
Scope change
The bill narrows the scope of eligibility by removing the 'alternative eligibility' pathway that allowed children who did not meet standard criteria to enroll in the program. Eligibility is now more strictly tied to specific categories of citizenship and lawful presence.
DEFINITION

Changed the definition of 'eligible child' to include 'qualified non-citizen' as a separate category and removed the 'traditionally eligible child' definition entirely.

ELIGIBILITY

Deleted the 'alternative eligibility' provision that allowed children who did not meet standard eligibility requirements to enroll in the program.

Updated Section 26B-3-903 to reference 'eligible child' instead of 'traditionally eligible child' when describing enrollment requirements.

TECHNICAL

Repealed Section 26B-3-910 which established the Alternative Eligibility Expendable Revenue Fund and related reporting requirements.

Updated repeal dates for numerous health-related committees, programs, and sections in Title 26B, with most repeals set for dates between 2024 and 2034.

Floor votes

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
6
Key actions
0
Committee
0
Jan 21, 2025
Introduced
House/ 1st reading (Introduced)
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Neil Walter
Neil Walter
RRepublican
UT
74