Utah's Latino Legislative Caucus consists of only four people. They are all Democrats and are currently waging a campaign for Medicaid expansion in Utah.

"I think it's a travesty," Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, told the Deseret News on the resistance to Medicaid expansion from the other side. "It's immoral on many levels that so many of our individuals in the state of Utah have no access to health care because the Legislature is sitting on this," said Robles, Senate minority caucus manager.

"There's a lot of talking but no action. I think the Senate is a friendly place to make sure we move toward Medicaid expansion. The problem is the House."

Robles and her allies see Medicaid expansion as one of the issues that has been a positive for Latinos in other states where Medicaid expansion is happening. Bolstering this initiative is a report released on Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which outlined just how beneficial it would be for Hispanics.

"If all states were to expand Medicaid, 95 percent of all eligible uninsured Latinos would be eligible for Marketplace tax credits, Medicaid, or CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program)," HHS stated in its report, adding that of all the non-elderly uninsured legal residents in the United States, one-in-four are Latino.

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that House Speaker Becky Lockhart is rejecting outright any expansion plan that relies on federal funds, and wants House leaders to come up with a substitute that relies solely on state funds.

"I'm trying to understand why we're developing a whole new model," Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck, D-Salt Lake City, told the Tribune. "We've done a lot of work and spent a lot of resources, including taxpayer dollars, studying this, and our colleagues haven't had a chance to thoroughly review it."

As in other states following the rise of the Latino vote to political prominence, Hispanic lawmakers and the politically active are mobilizing to awaken the Latino vote in their own jurisdictions.

"We are reaching out to all of our diverse groups in our community, making sure that everyone feels included (and) ... that the issues and concerns that affect various diverse communities are addressed at the Legislature. And we do that through our Latino representatives," Utah Democratic Party Vice Chairwoman Josie Valdez said to Deseret.