Medicaid

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.

State lawmakers appear ready to preserve the state’s Medicaid expansion program without knowing what federal changes might be in store.

Senate Bill 62, sponsored by Sen. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, failed on a 20-30 vote with 12 Republicans joining all 18 Democrats in voting against it.

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.

Medicaid expansion started in the state in 2015 and was reauthorized in 2019, but it’s slated to sunset this summer without legislative action.

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.

Medicaid expansion is a program to extend Medicaid eligibility to Montana residents who make up to 133% of the federal poverty line.

Lawmakers held hearings on three different proposals on how to address the upcoming expiration date for the state’s Medicaid expansion program.

A last-minute change to a 2019 bill put an end date on Montana’s Medicaid expansion program, setting the stage for what is anticipated to be the most significant healthcare debate of the 2025 Montana Legislature.