As Congress mulls potentially massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding, health centers that serve Native American communities are bracing for catastrophe.
The bill that would continue funding Medicaid passed the Legislature and will soon go to the governor, but lawmakers aren't done debating Medicaid expansion.
A 2024 report from the Montana Healthcare Foundation shows that in 2023, about 110,000 adults were covered under the state's Medicaid expansion program.
The Montana House took a key vote Friday to approve Medicaid expansion 63-37 with bipartisan support, albeit with debate about its long-term viability.
In recent interviews, legislative leaders predicted a vigorous debate over keeping the Medicaid expansion program, which pays the medical bills of more than 75,000 low-income Montanans at an annual cost of about $1 billion to the federal and state governments.