Hess votes to not help people

Editor,

State Rep. Stephanie Hess, a Havre Republican who is a member of the House Human Services Committee, voted in the last legislative session to kill Gov. Steve Bullock’s plan to expand Medicaid to provide health insurance to 70,000 low-income Montanans.

When another Medicaid expansion bill, proposed by Sen. Ed Buttrey, a Great Falls Republican, came up for a vote, she voted no again. Fortunately enough Democrats and Republicans voted for that bill, and it passed and was signed into law.

How can anyone be a social worker, as Hess has been, and not vote to help people? We should help people in our community, not put them down.

Hess was employed at the Northern Montana Care Center during that legislative session. I can’t imagine how surprised the administration and staffers of Northern Montana Health Care were when Hess voted against a bill that would have reduced the hospital’s financial burden of caring for the uninsured.

Sue Musgrove

Havre