HELENA, Mont. — Despite concerns about what Congress and the Trump administration might have planned for Medicaid, Montana's Republican-led legislature and GOP governor appear ready to keep the state's Medicaid expansion program in place beyond its scheduled end date this summer. This story also ran on States Newsroom.
It can be republished for free. State lawmakers don't have the luxury of waiting until the federal picture sharpens. They must decide before the session ends in early May whether to lift a June 30 sunset date for the expansion program, which covers about 76,000 adults.
However, the likelihood that significant changes lie ahead for the joint federal-state Medicaid program has spurred discussion of whether legislators should — or can — prepare for what may be coming. That's the challenge for lawmakers this session, said Republican state Rep. Jane Gillette during a recent meeting of the budget subcommittee she chairs that works on the Medicaid budget.
"What are the different options we have for bracing ourselves for that?" Gillette said. The U.S.
House is working on a budget bill to reflect President Donald Trump's priorities, including allocating up to $4.5 trillion to extend tax cuts that would otherwise expire. A plan passed by the House Budget Committee on Feb.
13 calls for $880 billion in cuts over the next 10 years for the committee that oversees, among other things, Medicaid spending. Ideas reportedly under discussion include federal work requirements.
