Medicaid Expansion Bill Advances to Senate

A key Medicaid expansion bill passed the Montana House of Representatives last week, one step closer to removing the sunset date on a program that has provided insurance coverage to thousands of Montanans.

A 2024 report from the Montana Healthcare Foundation shows that in 2023, about 110,000 adults were covered under the state’s Medicaid expansion program. The expansion offers healthcare for Montanans who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty line for income.

The bill passed with bipartisan support on a 63-37 vote Feb. 10 following rigorous debate the week before.

Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, is sponsoring House Bill 245. He said those covered by the expansion are working, contributing members of the state, and argued against worries about excessive state spending.

“If we choose to bury our heads in the sand and not provide our low-income citizens with a pathway to get healthy, a pathway to get help with addiction and a pathway to prosperity through employment, we’re going to pay for it down the road and we’re going to pay a heck of a lot more than we’re paying for the program now,” Buttrey said.

Some Republicans have pushed back on the program, saying the state needs to cut back and that they see the program as a handout.

Republican Rep. and Board Member of McCone County Health Center Jerry Schillinger of Circle said the bill “incentivizes poverty.”

“Everyone knows that anything that’s for free increases the consumption and increases the prices for everyone else that’s on private care and private pay because the demand for those services goes up,” Schillinger said.

Twenty-one of the 58 Republicans and all 42 Democrats in the House voted for the bill.

A bill that would phase out and end the program died the same week in the Senate.