Page 5 - Flathead Beacon // 3.11.15

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NEWS
The Intermediate Care Unit at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. BEACON FILE PHOTO
House Committee Opposes Governor’s Medicaid Proposal
MARCH 11, 2015 | 5
W•O•R•D•S of the Week
AN INDEX OF RECENT NEWSMAKERS
OIL
The U.S. supply of crude is the highest it’s been in at least 80 year and the country is running out of places to store it, which could drive prices even lower.
MEDICAID
The Montana Legislature will discuss House Bill 249, which would expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover about 70,000 people, after the bill went through a 6.5-hour hearing last week featuring more than 200 supporters and a dozen op- ponents. The Republican-led committee sent the bill to the floor with a recommendation to reject it.
TIMBER
A new look at the country’s housing market shows a “guardedly optimistic” in- creased need for forest prod- ucts, though most mills in the state are struggling to oper- ate at well under capacity.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Montana U.S. Sen. Jon Tester joined 43 other senators and 167 representatives in signing a court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn state bans on same- sex marriage.
Republicans vote to reject plan after lengthy testimony in support of Medicaid expansion
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
Despite an outpouring of support for Gov. Steve Bullock’s proposal to expand Medicaid coverage to up to 70,000 poor Montanans, Republicans on a House com- mittee voted March 6 to kill the so-called Healthy Montana Plan.
House Democrats bristled at the late- night, party-line vote by the House Hu-
man Services Committee, which came after a six-and-a-half hour hearing on the governor’s proposal, during which some 250 supporters packed the Capitol build- ing to testify in favor of House Bill 249. About 12 people testified in opposition to the measure.
The panel voted 10-7 to send HB 249 to
See Medicaid PAGE 22
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