Our advocacy group at Holy Spirit has just finished the first batch of letters to legislators (and many thanks to Carla Mettling for birddogging this). These letters focus on restoring cuts to case management for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. They are addressed to the six majority members of the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, which is considering the governor's budget proposal for the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) for about the next month. Public hearings on the budget for the agency departments most concerned with case management will be held this coming Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 21-22, Developmental Services Division) and next Monday (Jan. 28, Addictive and Mental Disorders Division) in Room 102 of the Capitol, between 8 a.m. and noon. Although the six letters are similar in approach, each was written by a member of Holy Spirit in his or her own voice. Here is just one letter, followed by the different...
More than half of all Montana businesses employed workers enrolled in expanded Medicaid, and that percentage increased to nearly 90 percent for accommodations and food service businesses, according to a report just released by the Montana Departments of Revenue and Labor & Industry. The significant number of workers covered by expanded Medicaid means that their employers benefited by not having to pay for private health insurance and by avoiding tax penalties, not to mention having healthier employees, the report noted. Gov. Bullock touted the study as another argument, aimed at the business community, for retaining Medicaid Expansion. You can read the governor’s press release, including a link to the study, here .
Heart flutters at the state capital Friday as the Medicaid Expansion bill carried by Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, was tabled by a Senate committee. But that turned out to be a parliamentary maneuver by the bill's Senate sponsor to assure it a more friendly committee hearing. The bill still should pass the Senate and be signed by the governor, most observers predict, as it has the support of Democrats as well as more moderate Republicans. Some Republicans opposed to Medicaid Expansion point to a failed statewide referendum last year that would have funded the program through an increase in tobacco taxes, suggesting that the current effort thwarts the will of the people. Opposition to the ballot measure was heavily financed by tobacco companies.
Comments
Post a Comment