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Utah will pay state employees to get vaccinated

A new incentive program sets aside millions of dollars for Utah state employees who get vaccinated against COVID-19.Starting October 1st, the Public Employee Health Plan will offer state employees and their families financial incentives to get vaccinated. The incentives could cost the insurance company nearly $4 million, but they believe that is less than hospital costs that unvaccinated patients could face.

 

Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced the new incentive at his monthly news conference, calling it a “forward-looking incentive.” 

 

Cox says the goal is to get all 23,000 state employees and their families vaccinated. The cost of the program will depend on how many people take advantage of it. The best estimate for the cost of the incentive Cox could give is about $3.9 million.

Tyler Hewitt is the web/social media assistant at UPR. He writes stories every day, updates the website and manages the station's Twitter and Facebook pages. Tyler is a senior at Utah State University and is studying public relations, marketing, and psychology. He loves to write, listen to music, play video games, play tennis and hang out with his fiancé and cat, Juno. He is a great plant dad and recently started collecting vinyl records!