LETTER: Legislator notes problems with Medicaid expansion

The Legislature passed the biggest increase in entitlement spending in the state’s history in the recent session. It’s called Medicaid expansion, part of Obamacare. It’s projected to cost $430 million over first two years.

The program faces tall hurdles. It expects low-income beneficiaries to be in work training programs and pay premiums and co-pays. Melding income, training and premium data sounds imponderably hard. Software used by the welfare office, CHIMES, needs to sync with the computers at the departments of Labor and Revenue. CHIMES doesn’t even work by itself; expect a computer brown-out when it’s duct-taped to two other systems.

Another problem deserves discussion. The new recipients only have to establish income upon application, then they’re set for the ensuing year. It’s called “twelve month continuous eligibility,” and it’s something the Bullock administration inserted, without asking the Legislature, before sending the paperwork to Washington, D.C., for approval. If the person can demonstrate a low enough income at any time, they receive a year’s benefits, regardless of how much their income rises. It’s a snapshot lasting a year.

Employers may schedule temporary layoffs as a favor to their employees, enabling them to present a low spot income to qualify for Medicaid. Their annual income would disqualify them. In this way the beneficiary’s annual income can exceed income caps. Recipients of regular Medicaid have to report changes in income whenever they happen that could terminate their eligibility. “Expansion enrollees” are getting special treatment. And taxpayers will pay more than needed.

Those who supported this legislation — I was not one — did not mean for people who had annual incomes in excess of 138 percent of the federal poverty level to get benefits this way.

The administration’s tweak violates the theoretical basis of the bill that was passed. —Tom Burnett, Bozeman Republican, HD 67