Despite Cap Issues I-185 would be good for Montana
I completely agree with the over 40 local and national health associations backing Initiative 185. It will insure health coverage for many Montanans because 52 percent of the taxes collected will be used to extend Montana’s Medicaid expansion program, which is currently scheduled to expire next year.
However, I would like to know why the text of the initiative caps the amount to provide state matching funds at $26 million each year. As conservative groups opposed to I-185 are pointing out, this is not enough to cover state costs when federal support for the expansion decreases to 90 percent by 2020.
I don’t understand why more was not earmarked. This could have been done by taking more of the money from the tax increase that is going into the state general fund. A figure could have been set that would match the amount needed to continue full coverage of the expanded Montana Medicaid program without costing the state an additional tens of millions of dollars per year. Which groups or persons set this inadequate $26 million in the first place?
This is the language that the state Supreme Court should change in the text, not the anti-tax language proposed by the opponents of I-185.
Joan Hoff
Big Sky