Governor's proposal to expand Medicaid dies on House vote

HELENA — The state House on Tuesday officially killed the governor’s proposal to expand Medicaid to about 70,000 low-income Montanans.

House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter of Helena made a motion on the House floor to reject the unfavorable committee report given to House Bill 249 Friday by a Republican-led committee. A vote by 60 representatives to reject it would have allowed the bill to be debated and voted upon on the floor.

Instead it received only 41 votes, all from Democrats, while 59 Republicans voted against it. 

Before the vote, Rep. Carolyn Pease Lopez said she couldn’t believe the Legislature was turning its back on the proposal. 

“The working poor are not qualified for full subsidies. These people they are working,” the Democrat from Billings told lawmakers, referring to subsidies not offered to certain low-income people on the federal health care exchange.

Rep. Art Wittich, chairman of the House Human Services Committee that voted to give the bill an unfavorable report, said people had their say and he listened to them on Friday. 

“I am not convinced that spending more government money on health care is going to fix health care,” he said.