A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

29 March 2016

More than 38,000 have enrolled in MT’s privatized expanded Medicaid

That number comes from the Montana Budget and Policy Center, which on a relative scale is a liberal institution in this state. The legislature’s fiscal analyst predicted that by fiscal 2019’s end, 46,000 of the approximately 70,000 thought to be eligible would be enrolled in the system, so in a way the 38,000 figure is good news.

On balance, having even Montana’s bastardized expansion of Medicaid provides poor people with at least rudimentary health insurance. Of course, it’s private health insurance, the program is administered by a private party (Blue Cross, if memory serves me correctly), and the poor must pay a two percent income tax (that’s called a premium) for the privilege of joining a system designed to teach them personal responsibility (don’t become poor, don’t get sick).

Montana’s Democrats whooped this bastardized expansion through the legislature with just enough Republican votes that it passed. A bipartisan victory? Only by the most dishonest definition of the term. And to the best of my recollection, not a single Democrat stood on the legislature’s floor said something to the effect of “I’m voting for the bill because on balance, on very narrow balance, because it might do some good. But as a Democrat I’m ashamed to cast this vote because we could, and should, have done so much better by our friends and neighbors and people in need.”

That’s what happens when a political party forgets how to win legislative elections and becomes increasingly comfortable with being a permanent legislative minority.