Medicaid expansion is a hot topic in Helena

A Republican-led legislative committee trying to kill the governor’s Medicaid expansion bill abused its power during a hearing on the measure, a House leader said Monday.

The House Human Services Committee and specifically chairman Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, prevented committee members on Friday from debating or proposing amendments to the bill — a tactic that violates House rules, Minority Leader Chuck Hunter, D-Helena, claimed Monday on the House floor.

“We knew that this kind of use of power was directed at preventing Medicaid expansion from being heard on this floor,” he said.

Hunter then objected to the committee giving the bill an unfavorable report.

Republican House Speaker Austin Knudsen of Culbertson said the objection was noted. It could get a short debate Tuesday on the floor as Democrats try to keep the bill in play.

After a six-and-a-half hour hearing Friday, committee members voted along party lines to move House Bill 249 to the House floor with the unfavorable report recommending that representatives vote against it.

That move will likely kill the bill because 60 representatives would have to vote to reject the recommendation in order for the bill to be debated and put to a vote, according to procedural rules.

With a Republican majority and leadership opposing the bill, it’s unlikely the measure will get the 60 votes needed to keep it alive.

The issue of the unfavorable report and procedural rules will get a short debate Tuesday on the floor as Democrats try to keep the bill in play, said Carissa Kemp, a spokeswoman for House Democrats.

Democrats largely support the measure that would accept federal money to expand Medicaid to about 70,000 low-income Montanans. They said at a news conference Monday that the votes on Friday were pre-determined despite comments from people who support the expansion.

“Clearly those votes were already scripted,” said Rep. Pat Noonan, D-Ramsay, the bill’s sponsor. “And those 250 folks who traveled across the state, everything they said made no difference.”

Only about a dozen people spoke against the bill known as the “Healthy Montana Plan.”

Wittich overruled objections made by Democrats at the hearing Friday. He didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment but told Montana Public Radio that the Republican majority plays by the rules.

Noonan vowed Monday to keep Medicaid expansion at the forefront of discussion in some form of legislation.

The expansion has support from some Republicans. Sen. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, is currently working on an alternate bill that would also accept federal money to expand Medicaid.

Another Republican counterproposal advancing through the Legislature would cost the state more than $20 million annually and cover about 10,000 people.

About 150,000 people in Montana are currently enrolled in Medicaid. The state pays one-third of the more than $1 billion cost.

Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s plan to put an additional 65,000 Montanans on Medicaid would, over the next four years, be funded solely by the federal government and save the state $80 million. Beginning in 2020, the then-$500 million annual expansion would be funded 90 percent by the federal government and 10 percent by the state.