Health care for working Montanans: Let's keep what works

by Mary Ann Dunwell

We’ve all heard the age-old maxim, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That applies to our state’s health care programs that ensure working Montanans stay healthy, hospitals thrive, and windfall returns on investment for taxpayers and patients.

One of my goals for the next state legislative session starting in January is to keep looking out for Montanans. An essential part of this is protecting the Medicaid program, which provides health care for lower income working families who often work two or more jobs.

  This program helps workers, the small businesses that employ them, and is an essential part of health care for rural Montanans. In 2015, Montana expanded Medicaid coverage just as 40 other states have done.

  And it’s working: the state’s uninsured rate is down by more than 50 percent while ER visits and hospitalizations have dropped, cutting down on health care expenses, which we all indirectly pay for.

Next year, the Montana Legislature must decide whether to keep this program. With the many other challenges facing Montanans—such as high property taxes, rising housing costs, and lack of affordable childcare—a fight over the successful Medicaid program makes no sense. We need to keep this health care that works for workers and employers alike.

The main reason I initially ran for the legislature 10 years ago was because of testimony from a young man and the way the naysayers on the committee treated him. The young man testifying worked full time, didn’t have health insurance, and had a heart condition. Most of the committee disregarded his compelling story and killed the bill. 

After the bill’s defeat, I decided to run and work my hardest with colleagues to pass expanded state health care for families and workers. We did it, and the past ten years have provided a winning track record for Montanans.

Despite proven wins and overwhelming support for keeping this good thing going, some of my legislative colleagues want to end Medicaid health care coverage and deprive Montanans of all its benefits. 

For what, political points? They’ll disregard countless, uplifting testimony about lives turned around by this state health care, people saved from medical bankruptcy, costs controlled for everyone, taxpayers benefiting from significant federal funding, workers able to work because they’re healthy, costs reduced for small businesses, and rural hospitals staying afloat because Medicaid expansion provides their lifeline. We stand to lose all this merely for an effort to make political points.

Let’s not let that happen. Keeping health care for working Montanans creates opportunity for our families and businesses and we can’t let partisan naysayers get their way. We need a state government that puts its citizens first and prioritizes what’s working for Montanans. 

  Please contact your state legislators and tell them to continue Medicaid expansion, which is both the right thing to do and a smart investment in our future. Government needs more common sense and keeping a good thing going like health care for working Montanans is a great place to start. 

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Mary Ann Dunwell is a state senator representing Helena and East Helena.