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Governor’s Proposal to Expand Medicaid Dies in House

House has officially killed the governor's proposal to expand Medicaid to about 70,000 Montanans

By Molly Priddy

HELENA — The state House on Tuesday officially killed the governor’s proposal to expand Medicaid to about 70,000 low-income Montanans.

House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter of Helena made a motion on the House floor to reject the unfavorable committee report given to House Bill 249 Friday by a Republican-led committee. A vote by 60 representatives to reject it would have allowed the bill to be debated and voted upon on the floor.

Instead it received only 41 votes, all from Democrats, while 59 Republicans voted against it.

Before the vote, Rep. Carolyn Pease Lopez said she couldn’t believe the Legislature was turning its back on the proposal.

“The working poor are not qualified for full subsidies. These people they are working,” the Democrat from Billings told lawmakers, referring to subsidies not offered to certain low-income people on the federal health care exchange.

Rep. Art Wittich, chairman of the House Human Services Committee that voted to give the bill an unfavorable report, said people had their say and he listened to them on Friday.

“I am not convinced that spending more government money on health care is going to fix health care,” he said.

The Republican from Bozeman also estimated that about 20 percent of people who spoke on Friday in support of Medicaid expansion already qualify for another existing program.

He said people who testified might qualify for Medicaid under a Republican counterproposal that would cover about 10,000 low-income parents, people with disabilities and some veterans. He said that bill and others are moving through the Legislature and lawmakers should move on to the other bills.

In a speech at the Montana Democrats’ annual dinner Saturday, Gov. Steve Bullock said this isn’t the end of Medicaid expansion.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m not depressed,” he said. “I’m inspired. I’m inspired by the people who sat through that (hearing) for six and a half hours. We are going to get this done. Seventy thousand Montanans need it, our rural hospitals need it, our economy needs it, we will get this done.”