A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
In fact, the system inflicted on Montana by SB-405, Republican State Senator Ed Buttrey’s bill that Democrats embraced with unrestrained enthusiasm, really isn’t Medicaid expansion. It’s a scheme for helping private health insurers by converting federal money for expanding Medicaid into private health insurance policies for the poor. It levies a two percent tax (called a premium) on the poor, requires the highest possible copays,* and creates a gratuitous third party administrator to keep the program away from government. It’s designed to harass and humiliate the poor while helping hospitals and private health insurers.
It’s nothing to celebrate — those who supported and support it should be burning with shame and begging forgiveness — but on 16 September in Missoula, the Montana Budget and Policy Center is holding a get-together “…to celebrate the passage of Medicaid expansion, support the work of MBPC, and hear what exciting projects we have coming up next.”
The MBPC’s mission statement is a minor masterpiece of the genre:
To advance responsible tax, budget, and economic policies through credible research and analysis in order to promote opportunity and fairness for all Montanans.
Celebrating SB-405 is a mighty strange way of promoting opportunity and fairness.
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* I’ve found a health care facility that now demands that copays be paid in advance of a visit with the doctor or nurse. That policy will deter poor people from seeking treatment, especially at the end of the month when they’re almost out of money.