Montana

WASHINGTON — The budget deal in Congress is billed as a measure to grant stability to a government funding process that has lurched from crisis to crisis — but it is also stuffed with provisions that will broadly affect the nation’s health care system, like repealing an advisory board to curb Medicare spending and funding community health centers.

Montana’s blueprint for expanding Medicaid on terms that are palatable to the fragile bipartisan legislative majority that passed an expansion law earlier this year has been released for public comment before it is formally submitted to federal officials.

A leading expert on Medicaid waivers, however, says Montana is unlikely to get exactly what it wants.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed legislation Wednesday to expand Medicaideligibility to about 70,000 low-income residents. The CMS must approve the plan, which includes premiums equaling 2% of a beneficiary's income. 

Montana would be the 29th state to expand Medicaid if the CMS grants its request for a waiver. 

Under the proposal, participants would be offered assistance to find employment or a better-paying job. 

The Montana state Legislature has passed a bill expanding Medicaid eligibility to about 70,000 low-income residents.

The bill approved Saturday heads to Gov. Steve Bullock, who is expected to sign it into law.

Bullock issued a statement applauding passage of the measure, saying he's glad politics could be put aside on behalf of the health of state residents and the economies of rural towns.

Obamacare’s tenuous toehold in Montana appears to be growing no firmer. Despite a hearing crowded with supporters of the Democratic governor’s Medicaid expansion bill, Republican legislators have dealt the measure a likely death blow.