Guest column: Montana's health care answer

(The following piece is writtenn by Sen. Fred Thomas, Rep. Art Wittich, Rep. Nancy Ballance, Rep. Ron Ehli, Sen. Matt Rosendale, and Sen. Cary Smith, Republican members of the Montana House.)

We recently introduced our Big Sky Health package, which was developed over two years to address our state’s most serious health care concerns.

Montanans have spoken loud and clear, for years, that they don’t want to accept overreaching federal health care programs like Obamacare. Instead, Montanans want a solution that works for our state’s unique population. Our state continues — rightly — to push back on implementing Obamacare, despite strong lobbying from national groups and our governor. The governor continues to falsely put a made-in-Montana label on a made-in-D.C. policy. His way is the lazy way. Simply take orders from Washington and be happy with the “free” money.

It would be similarly lazy to simply refuse all federal money, but that will not get any work done. Instead we worked hard to develop a Montana solution to improve our health care system for the greatest number of people by carefully utilizing limited federal funds, while at the same time keeping our state budget and health care systems sustainable.

Our Montana-based response to Medicaid expansion is to focus on those populations who are currently falling through the gap. This includes the disabled, low-income parents and veterans. While the governor and his Obamacare cheerleaders have insisted on an all-or-nothing approach, voting against our plan would mean the most vulnerable continue to fall through the cracks. Our plan keeps our taxpayer dollars focused on Montana’s most vulnerable.  

  Washington bureaucrats would like us to believe that its approach is best. They have also told us that expanding Medicaid will increase health care employment in our state. This, again, is false. Those 25 states who have expanded federal Medicaid are now facing financial distress, and claims of greater employment have been proven inaccurate.

All of the information coming to light nationally only makes it more obvious that a state-based solution is badly needed.

Big Sky Health ensures that our existing programs work efficiently and preserve the safety net for the most vulnerable citizens. We will also demand serious fraud prevention and oversight of social welfare programs.

Big Sky Health involves stepping back and finding innovative solutions for reducing the bureaucracy and red tape that make health care services more expensive, while making hospital costs and purchasing decisions more transparent.

Finally, the community mental health section of Big Sky Health funds and improves local mental health services, and has received wide bipartisan support. By serving mental health needs in community facilities instead of statewide institutions, we will cut down on repeat hospitalizations and reduce costs. Both parties came together to show overwhelming support for these initiatives.

Big Sky Health goes a long way in improving Montana’s health care system and deserves the serious consideration of the people, Montana’s 64th legislative body and the governor’s signature. Like mental health reform, let’s come together to give our state the Montana health care solution it deserves.

  (Sen. Fred Thomas and Rep. Art Wittich are Senate and House Health and Human Services Committee chairs respectively; Rep. Nancy Ballance is Appropriations Committee chair, Rep. Ron Ehli is chair of the Joint Subcommittee on Health and Human Services chair, Sen. Matt Rosendale is the Senate Majority Leader, and Sen. Cary Smith is the senate majority whip. All are members of the health care working group.)