Bozeman Editorial: Medicaid expansion paying dividends for state
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Editorial
Republican lawmakers debating the future of Montana’s Medicaid expansion in Helena need to take their eyes off the trees and take a look at the forest.
As the federal contribution to the expansion wanes and the state’s share rises, an opening gambit on the issue from Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, includes raising premiums for beneficiaries and taxing those premiums, as well as taxing health care services generated by the expansion.
That clashes with Gov. Steve Bullock’s proposal that maintains the current program.
The apparent goal of Buttrey’s proposal is to get enough money out of the beneficiaries of the expansion – the insured and health care services – to cover the increasing costs to the state as federal funding for the expansion decreases from 100 percent to 90 percent. That’s an understandable goal, but it ignores many of the benefits the state has already accrued from the expansion.
A recent study by a pair of University of Montana researchers found that the expansion generates some $600 million annually for the state economy. It has created more than 6,000 jobs and $350 million to $385 million in personal income a year. All of that produces substantial new income tax collections for the state.
And much of the increase in jobs and income come in critical clinics and health care providers in rural areas that would likely struggle to remain viable without the expansion.
According to the governor’s office, the expansion is also benefiting 18,000 businesses in the state that have employees covered by the expansion, clearly a massive boon to Montana’s economy.
Most importantly, the expansion has provided health coverage for nearly 100,000 Montanans, meaning they get regular care and no longer depend on emergency rooms for primary care – care many cannot pay for, passing the costs on to private insurers and their clients. Those costs have been halved by the expansion, according to the study.
All lawmakers, conservative and liberal alike, owe it to their constituents to spend state tax dollars wisely. But numbers don’t lie. There is compelling evidence the Medicaid expansion is paying for itself and will continue to do so.
There will be a lot of give and take as the debate continues, but let’s not let counting pennies obscure the view of the big bucks the state is reaping from the Medicaid expansion.