Republicans in the U.S. Senate unveiled their version of the American Health Care Act on June 22, with plans to alter major parts of the Affordable Care Act, including larger cuts to Medicaid than what was included in the U.S. House version of the bill.
Montana would still face the elimination of its Medicaid expansion program in the latest bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate bill would result in 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026.
The Montana Legislature approved Medicaid expansion in 2015, providing access to people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. This choice was given to states under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
With more than 79,000 Montanans newly covered under the Medicaid expansion, the state faces losing the expanded program under the Senate’s version of the bill in 2024 with reduced federal funding starting in 2021.
Before the Senate’s version of the bill came out, the Montana Healthcare Foundation released a report on June 13 about how the AHCA’s Medicaid provisions could affect the state based on the House’s version of the bill, with the following findings:
